"And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you."
Ephesians 4:32
Part 1
As born-again believers, God expects His children to think, live, and act differently from the old lost way of living they did before they knew Jesus Christ as Savior. That old way conforms to our past, dead, Genesis 3 natures. After salvation, a new life is possible and expected in Christians. Our old lives were characterized by things like “bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor (angry outcry), and evil speaking,… malice,” (see Ephesians 4:31). These were all normal and even expected actions when we were living for ourselves motivated by our selfishness. Anyone who isn’t a lover of Christ naturally exhibits these sinful behaviors. But since Jesus has saved and began sanctifying the new believer, things should begin becoming seriously different. When Jesus saves a man, his life begins to change as he grows “in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,” (2 Peter 3:18).
In saving people, Jesus changes them from what they were, to what He wants them to become.
“And she [Mary] shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins,” (Matthew 1:21).
“He shall save his people from their sins.” “This was the great business of Jesus in coming and dying. It was not to save people in their sins, but from their sins. Sinners could not be happy in heaven. It would be a place of wretchedness to the guilty. The design of Jesus was, therefore, to save them from sin…”1
We are different now, not living in the sins of our past, and now growing and changing to be more like our Savior. Instead of treating people as we did in our lost days, we now strive to treat people as Christ instructs us to.
Come back tomorrow to learn how the new believer treats people.
1. Albert Barnes, Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible, the electronic version in eSword.