Ephesians 4:17-32 (ESV)
Now this I say and testify in the Lord, that you must no longer walk as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their minds. They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, due to their hardness of heart. They have become callous and have given themselves up to sensuality, greedy to practice every kind of impurity. But that is not the way you learned Christ!— assuming that you have heard about him and were taught in him, as the truth is in Jesus, to put off your old self, which belongs to your former manner of life and is corrupt through deceitful desires, and to be renewed in the spirit of your minds, and to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil. Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need. Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
In several places in the Bible it warns of those who have hardness of heart. Hardness of heart can occur when one doesn’t walk in the ways of God and takes pleasure in the ways of the world. That hardness of heart leads to a darkened understanding and a life alienated from the life of God. When one seeks after their own way instead of the way of God they can become callous and darkened in their understanding.
We need to be those who are seeking Christ. We need to those who are constantly seeking the knowledge of God that can only be found in the scriptures. We need to be truthful. We need to know how to be angry and not sin. We should seek to use the abilities we have to do honest work so that we will have to be able to share with those in need. We should not have bitterness. We should not have malice. We should be kind, tenderhearted and forgiving.
The many letters of Paul offer us so much encouragement and much to think about how we should live. We should be seeking to put our thoughts on things of God. We should be seeking to have pure thoughts and seeking to put out of our lives the things that are evil. May we each seek to a life pleasing to God, seeking each day to grow closer to Him and growing closer to the example provide by His Son Jesus Christ.
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