| One might think that such an admonition to God’s children would not be needed, but how wrong is such a conclusion. Continually, in the church, in Christian work, and in the home, situations arise which call for kindness, consideration and forbearance, and which also call for forgiveness, for genuine offenses occur among the saints. So “let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another,” for “charity [love] suffereth long, and is kind.” If you have been offended or hurt, whenever possible “debate thy cause with thy neighbor himself; and discover not a secret to another,” but “that ye would confirm your love toward him,” “consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works,” and “by love serve one another.” So “put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye,” and this “with all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, forbearing one another in love.” |
