QUALITIES OF A NEW SELF (PART 7)

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

Ephesians 4:32

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

Over the last six messages in this series, we have seen the Apostle Paul issue a series of behaviors a person shouldn’t display if they have truly put on their new self after believing in Jesus as Savior. The verses within this block can be viewed as “thou shall not” kind of demands on the Ephesian Christians.

As we look at the final verse of Ephesians 4, we finally see an exhortation that encourages specific actions from a Christian believer, a list of “thou will do” commands. Look at this wonderful call to properly relate to people in life as a Jesus follower:

Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

A person who has put on their new self will show it through exhibiting certain qualities. Here we find Paul sharing three such qualities and let’s look at each one individually:

1. Kindness.

If you look up the definition of kindness, you will see it is found in a person who is friendly, generous, and considerate of others. It’s a quality that is only reached when a person can get outside of themselves because to be kind means you place other people ahead of yourself. And so a kind person is always interested in improving the life of another, ever ready to offer a smile or encouragement if it can lift the spirit of another.

When we look to Jesus, we find the only person who has ever lived a life of perfect kindness. His life was defined by self sacrificial giving to others to the point of being willing to surrender His own life to give anyone who would believe in Him the chance to live.

Choosing to believe in Jesus means we have to leave our old self in the past and put on a new self, a self that is to show self sacrificial kindness to others, just as Christ did.

2. Compassion.

Look up synonyms of the word “compassion” and you will find sympathy, empathy, and caring toward others.

A compassionate person has a warm heart that yearns to consistently identify with others in their times of need. They are more than willing to wade down into the dark recesses of another person’s life to be in the moment with them, offering encouragement and interceding in prayer for their afflicted brother or sister.

They also allow themselves to put on the other person’s shoes and walk in them for a mile or two as the old saying goes. In other words, the compassionate person allows themselves to imagine what it might feel like to be in the other person’s position and this allows them to best empathize with what is happening or has happened.

Read the Gospels and you won’t find a time when Jesus didn’t show flawless compassion for others. In fact, He cared so much for the fallen state of all sinners that He offered Himself up as a living sacrifice, the final atonement needed to exonerate people from their transgressions. In doing this, Jesus followed the will of His Father God who so loved the world that He didn’t wish for anyone to perish at the hands of His judgment.

The Father’s compassion was passed to His Son and when we choose to believe in Jesus, God’s Son, He passes His compassion to us to share with others, a quality showing we have put on our new self.

3. Forgiveness.

You may have seen this before at one time or another:

3 Nails + 1 Cross = 4 given.

Indeed, it’s at the cross of Calvary that we find the greatest manifestation of forgiveness in human history. For it was there that the sins of mankind were put to death with Jesus who bore them while being crucified. John 3:16 tells us that God so loved the world that He gave His only Son Jesus and the end product of that surrendering was forgiveness and pardon for anyone who believed in Christ as Savior.

Look to the cross as Jesus, the promised Messiah was brutalized and mocked, and you will find Him uttering these words out of the depths of enormous suffering and anguish:

“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34

Jesus possessed the power to order legions of angels to descend from the heavens to destroy those who were executing and ridiculing Him.

But He didn’t. Instead, He asked for their forgiveness from God.

Jesus didn’t have to die for us either. He could have chosen to save Himself and leave us to the punishment and wrath we deserved.

But He didn’t. Instead, He chose to die so we might live, forming a path for our justification and absolution from sin. Through our belief in Him, we are forgiven by God who will one day welcome us to live with Him forever, all because of what Jesus did.

Friends, when we choose to believe in Jesus, we also commit to forgive others, to forgive as God has forgiven us through His Son. This even means our enemies which may not be easy but when we remember how Jesus did it, we just need to follow His lead.

After all, isn’t that what being a Christian is all about?

In Christ and the new self He brings us to, we will always find ourselves being kind and compassionate to others, forgiving anytime it is warranted. If we live this way, we can trust that others will see Jesus in us and hopefully choose to believe in Him too.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to Gods4all@aol.com