I Am Not Always Patient Or Gentle

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. (Eph 4:2 NIV)

I have to confess that I am not always gentle or patient. My patience flies out the window when I end up listening to someone explaining why they don't thnk what they did was a sin rather than just confess them. My gentleness disappears when I see or hear anyone using or abusing others to make themselves feel or look better. I am neither gentle or patient when the word of the Lord takes second place to one's own opinions; their egos; their personal goals. I am not very gentle when man's will becomes a priority over God's will within the church on earth.

I am often accused of not being Christ-like when I lose my patience or my gentleness. Paul reminds us in his letter to Ephesians that we need to be. I wonder though, was it a reminder to himself as well? He, too, could lose his patience. He also could come across as a bit unkind. He did not sit back and let people trample on the rights of others. He was not quiet when others were teaching falsehoods about Jesus.

Jesus, himself, did not take kindly to his Father's being used as a mean to get rich. He was not pleased when he entered the temple and witnessed the shysters making a profit, it appears that he lost his patience with them and was not very gentle. "Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, 'Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!' His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.”  (John 2:15-17)

I confess. I am not always patient or gentle. You can accuse me all that you want of not being Christ-like; but, I will stand up for those who are being used or abused. I will not placate anyone by saying a sin is not a sin. I will be quite blunt with those who would subvert the will of God and proclaim their will rather than the will of the One who sent His only begotten Son to die for us. 

May God fill us with zeal for Him and for the whole Body of Christ.

God's Peace - Pr. J