Ephesians 4:2-3. “With all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love; Endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.”
We are, in verse one, to walk worthy of our calling in Christ Jesus.
In verse two, we are told to walk worthy “with all lowliness.” That doesn’t mean we’re to put ourselves down, talk trash about ourselves, constantly apologize to people for taking up space. We are simply to be humble. It is God Whom we represent. We should never be proud in our task, but humble and meek.
Meekness, someone has said, is strength under pressure. Moses was called a meek man. Jesus was meek. Meek does NOT equate with weak.
We are to be patient in our calling. We are not to treat other believers with impatience; we are to be forbearing. Forbearance is patience and tolerance.
Don’t you just cringe these days every time you hear the word tolerance? The poltically correct gurus have changed the meaning of the word to being complete acceptance and approval of all sinful behavior.
I could go off an such a rant right here! I won’t, though, because it’s not my purpose in this post. But there is a rant building in my mind, and sooner or later it’s going to have to come out 🙂
When believers exercise tolerance toward other believers, which is the context here, it simply means that we remember we are God’s; that we do what we can, without compromising scriptural truth, to keep a bond of unity and peace. When we do have division over scriptural truth, we do so without hatred and pejorative speech.
