Living Right, God's Way!

Living Right, God's Way! 

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:  And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.

Ephesians 4:31‭-‬32 KJV

The Context:

Paul writes to the church in Ephesus, charging them to remember who they are, who has called them, and what they have been called into. A sentence from the very first verse of today's chapter reads: "I... exhort you to walk worthy of the calling wherewith ye have been called". If I never knew it before today, I have to know it now: all who claim allegiance to God have been called by him into a new life and new ways of doing things. It is not business as usual, or a commitment to the things of the flesh and the old man, but to the things of God. There is a calling upon my life that I must live up to. If I do not know this, then maybe I do not yet know what the demands and expectations of God on me are.

Paul tells me here what the minimum standard of behaviour for all who bear allegiance to God should be. It cannot be more of the same as when I was in the world. My salvation experience need not be as dramatic as Saul's, but it must happen. There has to be an inner work in my heart, so that this inner work will lead to an external manifestation in my daily life.

The Message:

What is expected of me? There must be both a putting off and a putting on. I cannot have both at the same time. The call of God upon a man's life NEVER leaves him the same way; something must give. The evidence of the old man is all around us: bitterness, anger, wrath, malice and evil speaking. Long before a man speaks evil, his heart is polluted. The work is first inner, before it can impact the outer. A daily audit of my life is really important here: what are the fruits my life is manifesting right now? Is God glorified or made known in and through my life?

And when I have put off that which belongs to the old man, I must put on that which belongs to the new man. I cannot be found naked; I would always be clothed with the nature that reflects my choices and priorities. I take stock again: what are my present pursuits? Am I dressed in line with my calling? Does the proof of my daily life align with God's call upon my life? The fruit and evidence of my walk with God are also obvious: kind, tenderhearted and forgiving. You see again the proof that it is first an inner work before it becomes a public walk.

The Response:

God has laid out the perfect example of what life under his control looks like. He loved us at a time when we were incapable of love, because we had no idea what God's love looked like. He forgave us our sins and past, by allowing his only son to be put to death for our sins. My response, in accepting the gift of life I have been given, is to ensure that the world can see the fruit of my acceptance of the gift. Whatever it is I pursue must show off my acceptance of the gift of life through the son of God.

If there is no difference between my past life and the one I live in the son of God, there is an issue. If my life profession does not match my mouth confession, I am a hypocrite. If men only know me by my past, with no record of anything different from the usual and the normal, I need to check again if God has truly worked in and on me. Life is provided in and through the son of God, and only by total submission to him do I enjoy the life of God on offer. Am I born again? Is my life showing off that new life? Eternal questions, with eternal consequences. His time of favour is here.