Communicating in Love

UV 3636/10000 Communicating in Love Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamour ( perpetual animosity, resentment, strife, fault-finding) and slander be put away from you, along with every kind of malice ( all spitefulness, verbal abuse, malevolence). Ephesians 4 v 31 As followers and believers of Christ, we must emulate His example and stride out of all strife and move towards greater and greater peace. Nothing we say or do should grieve the ever sensitive and gentle indwelling Holy Spirit. We must give up all bitterness and strive to be better people, not giving in to anger, quarrelling, bickering, arguments, abusive language, cursing, carping, gossip or slander. No foul, profane, worthless words should ever leave our mouths. We should train our mouths or our tongues to speak the truth with love and not be caught speaking negative words. We cannot do all this on our own but we need the grace and help of the Holy Spirit. We should get rid of our old self and put on the new self that is being built in the image of Christ. We should renew ourselves constantly in the Spirit and be filled with the Holy Spirit. The key to avoid bitterness getting the better of us is to keep forgiving others and not remembering any grievance or hurt they might have caused us. A wrong remembered is a grudge. Hence, it is as important to forget as to forgive. Hence, in the Lord’s prayer, we repeat the phrase, “ Forgive us as we forgive others.” The measure we use will be the measure used for us. Instead, we should be kind, calm and compassionate to others. Our tone needs to be gentle and persuasive even as our words are kind and expressing the love of Christ. Sometimes, an ill timed joke hurts people like a sting. We should pass our words through the filter of the Word of God before we communicate it. We should aim to listen carefully to others before offering our opinions on any matter. We must not say anything in haste or in anger and then regret it at leisure.