Good day dear friends.
Our text for today comes from Ephesians 4: 25 What this adds up to, then, is this: no more lies, no more pretense. Tell your neighbor the truth. In Christ's body we're all connected to each other, after all. When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself. 26 Go ahead and be angry. You do well to be angry - but don't use your anger as fuel for revenge. And don't stay angry. Don't go to bed angry. 27 Don't give the Devil that kind of foothold in your life. 28 Did you used to make ends meet by stealing? Well, no more! Get an honest job so that you can help others who can't work. 29 Watch the way you talk. Let nothing foul or dirty come out of your mouth. Say only what helps, each word a gift. 30 Don't grieve God. Don't break his heart. His Holy Spirit, moving and breathing in you, is the most intimate part of your life, making you fit for himself. Don't take such a gift for granted. 31 Make a clean break with all cutting, backbiting, profane talk. 32 Be gentle with one another, sensitive. Forgive one another as quickly and thoroughly as God in Christ forgave you. 5:1 Watch what God does, and then you do it, like children who learn proper behavior from their parents. 2 Mostly what God does is love you. Keep company with him and learn a life of love. Observe how Christ loved us. His love was not cautious but extravagant. He didn't love in order to get something from us but to give everything of himself to us. Love like that. (The Message)
Dime con quien andas y te dire quien eres. I don't remember when I first heard it, but I knew what it meant immediately. "Tell me who your friends are, and I'll tell you who you are." Literally, it means tell me with who you are with, and I will tell you who you are. Whether we like it or not the company we keep usually defines who we are. Try as we may to be the most influential in any group, it becomes difficult to always be the positive, hopeful one. Jesus, of course, was the exception, but then again, Jesus hung around with God a lot. The writer is saying the same thing, if we spend time and "keep company" with God, we do indeed learn a different life, a "life of love." Look at Jesus, the writer continues, notice how Jesus loved us with extravagant, giving love; "love like that." The verses that come before speak of the high ideals of truthfulness, relational calm that we should keep and practice. Anger, the writer knows, serves no good purpose. And it certainly does not help to go to sleep angry. I heard and I later used this with premarital counseling; a night spent apart because of anger, makes it easy to make it many nights and days apart from your loved one. Nellie and I learned to settle differences before morning and that blessed our marriage. The passage also says to respect what is not ours, and to use words to construct and build up one another; we serve no purpose in putting or cutting anyone down. We should live our lives in a way that glorifies God.
PRAYER: Loving God, I thank You for the extravagant love You have shown me and mine, through Jesus Christ. Make me like Christ. Make me a person whose life does indeed glorify You and You only. May my words, thoughts, and actions be only for Your good. I pray this in Christ Jesus' precious and powerful name, amen.
Have a great and blessed day in the Lord.
Eradio Valverde
