stop brawling
Ephesians is a letter to Christians who have been chosen, loved, adopted and given new life by God the Father, by connecting us with Jesus Christ by the power of the Holy Spirit.
People who have been brought into God’s family live together in unity.
In chapter 4 verse 31 Paul says: “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice”.
Brawling sounds pretty bad. Almost like the average city centre on a Friday night. Surely the church is not like that?
Well maybe there’s not actual street fights, but we if we allow bitterness to fester in our hearts we will eventually lash out at people with our words and with our actions
We can do others down with our words. We can gossip about them, telling their secrets, broadcasting their bad news behind their backs with our bad hearts relentlessly and cruelly driving us on.
Rather, we need to get rid of those destructive attributes and be kind, compassionate and forgiving,. That’s what Christ does for us. He forgives and moves towards us and listens to our prayers.
Written by Graham Nicholls