12 Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.
- What is the reason for putting on these qualities?
- How do the various qualities listed here connect to forgiveness?
- What is supposed to rule your heart?
- What are the consequences of not having these qualities?
You are God's set apart and loved people. You are expected to be transformed into His image and this is a list of "garments" to put on. You are expected to exhibit these qualities as your qualities. This is important. Your attitudes (and that is what most of the list is) are yours to put into action. You cannot control other people's actions, sins, and attitudes. You can only control your actions and attitudes. You will be hurt in this fallen world. You will likely hurt someone in this fallen world. Your goal should be to be like Jesus, to forgive even when people are intentionally hurting you, to love people even when they are not so lovable. Go through your life desiring to be ruled by the peace of Christ, not the anger and upset of your selfish nature. Folks, please understand: I do not have this in place yet. I am striving and struggling. But God's Message is clear whether the messenger is worthy or not.
2 comments:
If I have all the qualities mentioned here, then Christ is revealed in my life. The qualities I have the most diddiculty with are humility and patience. These are qualities that my wife reminds me of often. On occassion, I also have difficulty in forgiving. My thought process usually goes along the line "He or she doesn't deserve to be forgiven." By the same line of reasoning, I don't deserve it either. I guess I better start practicing forgivness NOW and reclaim the grace God has given me!
After reading my comment above, I see I lack the quality of correctly spelling "difficulty" along with some other words. I feel sorry for people who only know one way to spell a word.
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