Ephesians 4:25-32 • Witness of Grace
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
We know His love because He showed it to us on a cross but called us to share it as well.
And we'll learn how today in Ephesians chapter 4, Ephesians 4 verse 25 to the end of the chapter.
As you're turning there, I want you to listen to an email I received from a friend this past week, a pastor, who lives in Baltimore.
This is what he wrote.
"As to the rioting and where it happened, Sandtown, the home of New Song Community Church pastored by a P.C.A. pastor, Louis Wilson, is ground zero for the conflict.
The young man at the center of the controversy lived in Sandtown and many of the people at New Song Community Church know him.
The CVS Pharmacy that was looted and burned was the pharmacy that lots of people in the Sandtown church walked to for their medications.
However, in spite of the horrible damage to the community, Sandtown is a deeply proud neighborhood of people who love their community and their cleanup after the rioting has been spectacular given the circumstances.
Much of the damage was done by people imported and not local.
It was actually a sheer delight," writes my friend, "to along with Pastor Lewis walk throughout the neighborhood, to greet folks, to clean up things with them, to hear their stories and hearts even as police and TV helicopters were circling above us.
I can tell you that amid the media, the rubble, the threats and the pain, there are clear signs of hope and peace.
And it is obvious that Jesus is here."
What does it look like for Jesus to be here?
Amid the media and the rubble and the threats and the pain: What does it look like for Jesus to be in our community, in our city, in our neighborhood?
What does it look like?
The apostle Paul tells us when he speaks of the renewed life that represents Jesus to community and neighbor and family in Ephesians 4.
Let me ask that you would stand as we honor God's Word.
Ephesians 4 and verse 25.
In your Grace bibles, that's page 978.
This is the apostle Paul telling us what that renewed life in Christ looks like.
Verse 25, "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.
Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.
Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.
Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
Let's pray together.
>>> Father, as God in Christ forgave us: We cherish it, but You are calling us to fountain it.
To somehow be so filled up with the reality of the goodness of Christ that we become His instruments in a broken and sometimes quite angry world.
So teach our hearts, we pray this day, what it means to be the presence of Jesus in a place of rubble and pain and brokenness that we might be His peace to others who need it and that we might experience His peace, we who do need it.
This we ask in Jesus' name.
Amen.
>>> Please be seated.
Paul sets it all up in verse 24 where he reminds us that we are to put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.
The language is going all the way back to creation itself where we're reminded that Adam and Eve were created in the likeness of God.
And here he's saying in Christ, as we have been renewed by His forgiveness, as we are united to Him, we get a do-over.
We somehow have the ability to live in righteousness and holiness as our very first parents were created, that that image of God is by the work of grace recreated in us so that we become bearers of the likeness of Christ in a very new and fresh way in a very old and crusty world.
What does it actually look like to have a life that is renewed in the image of Christ for God's glory?
It's plain the things he is saying.
A renewed person has a life that is set free from the effects of sin, not only the guilt put away but its enslavement put away too, that we are fueled as well as freed for a life that reflects the goodness of God.
And there are just some plain things that that means.
What does that renewed life look like?
Well, first of all, it's a renewed person who speaks differently from the rest of the world.
Verse 25, "Therefore, having put away falsehood, let each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another."
We speak differently.
And that, at least at first means we put off all falsehood.
Now, why would the apostle go there as that's the first step of the renewed life?
Do you recognize that was actually the first step of the fallen world?
I mean, we always think of the first sin as being eat--, eating of the forbidden fruit.
But that was just kind of the end of a path away from God.
The very beginning was a falsehood where Satan tried to tempt Eve and said, "Did God really say you could not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil?"
And Eve responded, "Oh, yes.
He said we should not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or even touch it."
You know, our God isn't very reasonable, you know.
He has these unreasonable expectations.
And just the little twisting, just the saying what God had never said gave Satan the crack in the door, the foothold, the place to work in her heart.
He said, "Well, you know, you know that God isn't reasonable.
You know why?
Because He doesn't want you to be like Him."
And Eve's lie was the beginning, the falsehood of what God had actually said was the beginning of Satan being able to work in her heart and ultimately in our hearts throughout the world and the brokenness that resulted.
So put away all falsehood, but it's not just the negative, is it?
Something's to be put in the place of falsehood.
The apostle says, "And speak the truth with neighbor, for mere--, we are members of one body."
Why did he even have to go there?
I mean, Paul is writing to the church.
Why is he saying, "Don't lie but tell the truth"?
Well, because not telling the truth is so common.
I mean, we're in the week following the Atlanta, not students but teachers who were caught in a lie, right?
Who in order to have test standards meet certain criteria lied and actually helped students to lie.
But, of course, we recognize that the teachers are reflecting an epidemic, which we're regularly told about: that universities and high schools and grade schools of students that feel the pressure of parents and others and ultimate careers and cheating is just part of everyday experience.
And, of course, it's not just students and teachers.
The financial crisis that our nation is trying to limp back out of are people at the highest levels of finance and business in our country not telling the truth about risk and therefore ultimately, you know, all collapsing upon them.
We're just starting a presidential campaign and already the scandals that are breaking out as who lied about what, what email said what, what email was put where.
And suddenly we're all animated about, at every level, students, teachers, business people, politicians: It's a lie.
And we're concerned.
But, of course, in the church it's not the problem that's just so common.
If it's so common, it's inevitably quite near.
Because of the pressure of expectation, because of the pressure of being found out, because of the willingness to cover or seek advantage, it is so easy just to color the truth, to turn it just a little bit to one's advantage, to just make another person look a bit silly or unreasonable so that we get our way.
And so the apostle starts out by saying, "Don't tell falsehoods but tell the truth."
Why?
It's really at the end of the verse, his point: "For we are members one of another."
The church, Paul has said from the very beginning, is the instrument of God in the world, the body of Christ by which ultimately He is going to fill all with the fullness of God; that this body of people, as we multiply church after church across centuries and world, is the most powerful instrument for transformation on the face of the earth.
But what gums up the gears, the wrench in the cogs of the church is mistrust.
When we stop trusting one another, we can't pull together; we can't work past the difficulties.
And so the apostle is saying, "Listen, tell the truth to one another."
And submessage: And if you haven't, confess to one another.
Repent of your sin, because we can't function and do all that God has called us to do without truth between us.
And so the apostle starts thinking of the great mission of the church, just saying, "What's going to make this happen is people talking truthfully to one another."
He moves beyond that and he says not only should you tell the truth: He says that a renewed person, of course, reacts differently as well.
Do you see that?
Verse 26, "Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger."
Do the words surprise you?
He's not actually saying that anger is the sin, right?
"Be angry and do not sin."
As though there can be a right, even a righteous anger.
You reflect that when you say what Paul is talking about is lim--, is reflecting the image of God in us.
There are some things that God is rightly angry at.
God is rightly angry at injustice or inequity, at cruelty or abuse, at selfishness or self harm.
God is rightly angry at such things.
What makes the anger turn sinful so that you can be told to be angry at the right things but do not sin?
The answer probably is in verse 37, 27 when you see the apostle kind of taking the reason.
"And give no opportunity to the devil."
What is the devil's purpose?
We learn that from the very beginning of where we're introduced to him: Genesis 3:15.
Do you remember?
Where now their fallenness, the brokenness has occurred and God declares something to Satan because of the temptation and the brokenness that he has caused.
"'I am going to put I will put enmity,'" antagonism, "'between you and the woman, between your seed and her seed; you are going to strike his heel,'" you're going to try to harm the purposes of Christ to come, but he is ultimately going to crush you, Satan.
But Satan's goal from that point forward is to strike the heel; it's to damage the purposes of Christ.
The reason that the apostle is saying to us "Be angry and do not sin" is that if we actually are seeking someone's harm, if we've stopped being concerned for their spiritual wellbeing, now our anger has caused from righteous anger to unrighteous anger.
If I'm righteously angry at your self harm, if I'm righteously angry at your injustice but what I now want to do is harm you rather than correct you, if I no longer am concerned for your spiritual good, what I've actually done is I've lost control of my anger.
We talk about it in everyday language, right?
You lose your temper.
You've lost your hold on it.
And you lose your hold on it when you actually begin by emotional or even physical damage to hurt another person with your anger.
Now it has crossed over into the unrighteous realm.
And the apostle, knowing that, says, "Do not let the sun go down on your anger."
Now, I'm going to tell you straight out: When I was first married, I misunderstood this verse.
[Laughter]
Okay?
Here's what my ears heard: Do not let the sun go down on your argument.
Right?
Until you've got it fixed, you can't go to sleep.
[Laughter]
Man, those were some awful days.
[Laughter]
You know, cause the later it goes, I'm thinking: I want to follow the scripture, so we can't go to sleep yet.
And, of course, the longer we argue, what happens?
It just gets worse and worse and worse the tireder we get, right?
But what if we said, no, the apostle's not saying, "Don't let the sun go down on your argument."
There may be things you still have to fix.
There may be things that take a lot of reconciliation.
But the anger should not outlast the day.
You should still lie down in love, even if it's not all fixed yet.
Never is your goal to just win, to conquer the other person, to harm them in any way, even if there's things that aren't worked out yet.
And that reality that I can lie down in love, that I can be at peace with my brother even though we may have things still to work out is what the apostle is saying makes anger still righteous.
But if you let it go, if you have not held onto it, right?
It's now designed to hurt someone or if you hold onto it so long it begins to fester in you, then the reality is that bitterness is the acid that eats its own container.
It begins to destroy you.
And so the apostle concern not just for kind of legalistic rules but concern for our own hearts, for our relationships, is saying, "Don't let your anger go in such a way that it gives Satan a place in your heart."
Some of the older translations that I used to love, remember: "Don't give Satan a foothold."
Right?
It's actually the Greek word "Topos" as in topography.
Don't give him territory.
And the way you give Satan territory is being angry at people to the point that you want to hurt them in some way: spiritually, physically, emotionally.
The anger that is rightly expressed that kind of drives Satan's territory away from your heart is even when there are things to be worked out to be concerned for the spiritual good of the other person.
Even if you have things to work out, they are done out of a heart of love for the other person's good even as we work through difficult and hard things.
The apostle's not done.
What else characterized the life of one renewed in the image of God so that they are reflecting Christ to others?
The apostle said that that renewed person doesn't just speak differently and react differently but actually acts differently.
Verse 28, "Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need."
Now, here's the simple part.
Here's just the instruction: Don't steal.
Got it.
What we may not recognize is the blessing that's implicit.
Not stealing but doing honest work is intended to reflect the image of God in us, so that honest work, any honest work, is a reflection of the image of God.
What that means is honest work is holy work.
If I am doing what honors God in my life, whether I'm in construction, in farming, in education, in engineering, whatever it be: If I am doing honest work, it is holy work.
There are no secondary professions in the church: We have some holy people and not holy people.
We are called to a holy profession in which God is saying, "If you are reflecting Me, you are actually free to be you."
Has God gifted you in a certain way, given your mind and skills a certain character so that you can do certain jobs?
If it is honest work, it is holy work, and that is a great blessing to know: that I'm not secondary because somehow I'm not a missionary or pastor.
Honest work is holy work.
God has called me to this holy profession.
But one of the other blessings in the verse is, how do I say this, just the present tense.
Verse 28, "Let the thief no longer steal."
You know what that means?
It means there were thieves in the church.
Oh, no!
There're messed up people in the church.
[Laughter]
There're people who don't do everything right in the church.
Of course, that's the point, that the apostle is saying, "The thief who's among you should no longer steal."
But that's kind of the confession: that there are people who are broken and even struggling.
No longer steal means there might actually be some people in the church who are still considering it.
And it's the great reminder that we're all here because we need the gospel of Jesus Christ.
We all need our sin covered.
We all need to be healed.
We all come with a certain level of brokenness.
And when I recognize, you know, there are thieves and cranks and all around us here, I've got a place.
I'm not somehow ruled out because there's struggle or difficulty in my life.
The apostle when he's talking to people about honest work, when he's talking to people about changing their speech patterns, changing their anger pattern: He's just talking to us.
And when I recognize that, I can say, "My brother, I've sinned against you.
My brother, I need to come to you."
And if they say, "Well, you know, it's just your problem."
Say, "Actually, the reason I can confess to you: I know you got as many problems as I do.
You need the grace of God as much as I do.
That's why I can come to you, speak eye to eye."
And the reality of that is why the apostle Paul can speak so plainly to us about "let the thief steal no more."
After all, let's just be honest: The software on our computers, the figures on our tax forms probably to some extent make thieves of a lot more of us than we want to confess.
And the reason I can still come to church and still speak to you and you to me is we recognize the church is made for people like us, people who need the grace of God.
And so the apostle is saying, "Turn from what is hurting that relationship with you and others, but recognize there's a place for you here.
To confess and be made right with God is what God is actually calling you to do."
Why?
The reason is actually given at the ver--, end of verse 28, right?
So you have honest work to do "so that you may have something to share with anyone in need."
That God has made us members of a body.
And what we do as part of this great calling of the church of Jesus Christ is recognize that we have holy callings in many places in many different ways, so that as the body we can do the work of Christ in the world.
And if that means I'm pulled together, to whom much is given much is required, my honest work, the proceeds from it are meant to be shared.
I think of those of you who are sharing out of your businesses.
I think of those of you who are sharing out of your skills, whether they're construction skills or medical skills or going to neighborhoods to help people clean up: that what you're doing is you're saying, "I recognize I have been gifted by God to share, not just to receive."
And that's part of the blessing of the gospel of the church to others around us.
I heard a, I heard a wonderful testimony this past week from a businessman who was talking about how learning what it meant to share with another ultimately told him the gospel again.
He was in a board meeting and he was talking to a number of us, what might have been very embarrassing to say what he said.
But here's what he expressed.
He said, "I had an employee who was hooked on crack and stealing from me.
And I had given him every chance, but he just kept stealing.
I wanted to show the reality of Christ to him, but I was at my wit's end.
So I went to my pastor to say, 'How do I show mercy to this man who can't stop stealing from me?'
And the more I described the man who could not stop sinning despite mercy toward him, the more," said the businessman, "I recognized I was describing myself."
He said, "I began to bawl.
I just cried to my pastor.
And I said, 'The more I talk about another man stealing the more I doubt that I am worthy of God's mercy.'"
Then he said, "Then my pastor said to me, 'Oh, this really is a serious problem.
When did you start believing you were worthy of God's mercy?'"
Do you recognize whenever we believe that we are worthy of God's mercy we have stolen from the glory of His grace?
We have said what He supplies is not really all that I need: I've got enough.
When we begin to reach out and say, "What God has given me, I give to others," I'm beginning to understand that it's not because of their deserving; it's not because they've met the conditions: It's because I am extending to others what God has given.
That receiving and sharing are actually part of the same cloth.
That if I receive great grace, that it begins to fill me up and I recognize the purpose of my honest work is so that I can share with others what I have received.
And I begin to recognize that what God is doing in this passage that has so much that bothers us about our speech patterns and our reaction patterns and our action patterns is he's not just talking about what characterizes us but what is preparing us to be witnesses for Him.
That this receiving is going to be now sharing and that turn to sharing is taking what could be just kind of a legalistic understanding of being a Johnny good-two shoes and actually saying, "Here's why you are called to holiness for the purpose of witness in the world."
After all, what characterizes those who are not just freed from sin's character but are actually now fueled for the witness of the gospel in the world?
Well, the fueling of the witness is also speaking differently.
You know these words.
Verse 29, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear."
Now, I confess to you when I was a teenager and I was taught this passage of scripture, I can remember how the definition, rightly given, was: What is no corrupting speech?
The Greek word there for corrupting, it's even going to say in some of your footnotes, is a word for putrid or spoiled and it's the typical word for obscene speech.
You should not have obscene speech coming out of your mouth.
But is all that God is being here and saying is something, you know, according to, you know, your grandmother or like your grandmother, you know, "If you haven't got anything good to say, don't say anything at all"?
It's actually not what God is doing here, right?
He's not saying, "Don't say anything at all."
He's saying, "Don't have that speech which corrupts but rather have that speech that constructs, that builds up."
Remember the words?
Verse 29 again, "Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up," as though there's a constructing aspect that our speech has in the purposes of God.
I never saw it more clearly than at a time in graduate school when I was asked to study a particular experiment that those involved in speech theory had been involved in.
And here's what they did: They took people from different language parts of the world and they had constructed an experiment with a certain spinning disk that had an image on it.
And people were to describe the image on that spinning disk.
And depending on which language they spoke, they actually saw different things in the image.
And the hypothesis of those who were now studying this was that our language patterns, our speech patterns are actually forming neural pathways in our brain, so that we see the world, we're actually constructing the world that we see by the language that we use.
I mean, the Bible is remarkably understanding.
Use the speech that builds up, that constructs.
We actually do see what we say.
And by saying things a certain way, we begin to perceive our world in a way that shows us grace to start with.
I mean, we know those people, right, who, you know, they're constant expression is complaint or caustic criticism of other people.
They are just constantly seeing the error in others or the wrong in others or the fault in others.
And sometimes we just back away and say, "Why do they talk that way?"
Do you recognize they're just describing the world that they see?
Their words have formed that world that they see.
They've constructed the world by their words.
And the more they speak those kinds of words, the more they harden the pathways in their brain of the world that they see.
And the great grace of God is saying, "Speak that which constructs, that builds up."
The reality of grace for you but, of course, it's not just for us, so that you may share grace with others, speak that.
End of verse 29, remember?
"That it may give grace to those who hear."
that's an amazing thought.
That around us are our spouses, our families, our coworkers, our children, and we're actually forming the world that they see by the way that we speak.
So that if we speak with suspicion and anger and caustic perceptions, we're actually depriving them of the grace that God intends for them to see, than a world where there is beauty and there is forgiveness and there is reality of the goodness and grace of God, that we're actually creating a barrier to our own loved ones being able to see it, by the world that we're creating by our speech.
And so the apostle is simply saying recognize that what I'm enabling you to do is not just, you know, some third-grade teacher saying, "I'm going to wash out your mouth with soap if you," do they do that anymore?
You know.
[Laughter]
It's got far more concern, not just for some legalistic standard, but for the goodness of our life experience.
I want you to know my grace by framing the world that you see by the words that you say and helping those about you to see the beauty of that world.
It's the gift we give to family and friend and neighbor and coworker, by being able to speak in ways that they begin to see a world they never had access to, by the speech that we are using.
The words actually do create a world of grace.
And it's God's very intention that it be that way.
Verse 30 takes that notion of sharing and pushes it even further.
"And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption."
The renewed witness that God is calling us to is somebody who is actually reacting differently to the world, so that we are not grieving the Holy Spirit.
What was the purpose of the Holy Spirit?
Jesus told us, "The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to testify of Me."
We grieve the Holy Spirit when what is in us does not testify of Christ, when others are not seeing Him clearly by how we are acting and reacting.
And so the apostle just says to us, "You should not grieve the Holy Spirit," and then describes what that means.
Verse 31, "Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice."
I just feel awful now, you know.
[Laughter]
To recognize how easy it is to grieve the Holy Spirit by slander, by malice, by speaking ill of other people, by not trying to build up others so that others see them in a better light rather than a worse light.
And what God is doing as He is doing this is actually saying, "This is the gospel spreading.
This is part of the means by which world transformation is occurring."
That God is actually working in us and He does that as we do not grieve the Holy Spirit by not griping about one another.
Now, I'll just tell you straight out: You know, what's one of the things that hinders the gospel in the church?
I mean, Pastor Kerry was so honest with us earlier today to say one of the hardest weeks of his pastoral experience has been this past week, because there've been some hard things happen in our church.
And what keeps us at times from talking about things that make the grace of God flow?
Because we know each other.
And we know that if in the church you say, "Man, I'm really struggling with my kids," or "I'm really struggling with my boss," or "I'm really struggling with lust," "I'm really struggling with anger," "I'm really struggling with unforgiveness," that in the church of Jesus Christ, a third to a half of the people, I just made that figure up, but a third to a half of the people if you tell them your problems, they're going to say, "It's your fault."
And so we just clam up, right?
And the grace can't flow.
The reception of one another, the forgiveness to say, "You know, I'm like you; I struggle with those things too."
We won't talk about it, and so the grace of the gospel can't flow.
And so the apostle is saying, "Listen, without malice and without slander, talk to one another.
Be kind to one another, because you're going to need one another in those moments of difficulty."
Now, listen, because there are so many twisted and mean people in the church, you know, like you and me.
[Chuckles]
Because there are so many twisted and mean people in the church, I have some advice of you next time you face some tension or difficulty: Because there are so many twisted and mean people in church, the next time that you face some tension or difficulty, don't be one of those people.
[Laughter]
Cause our reaction is just to grieve the Holy Spirit.
Our reaction is malice and slander, to speak in hard ways about people.
And what we're doing is then we're just shutting down, not just other people's ability to talk to us, our ability to talk to other people when we actually need one another.
And so the apostle is saying here with such tenderness what hard things have to be said, so that he can ultimately get to verse 32.
"Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
This renewed witness to which we are called is just not reacting to difficulties differently: It's acting differently for the sake of other people, to actually reflect the reality of Christ in us.
What's the ministry of the Holy Spirit?
It's to reveal the glory of Christ.
What is Christ's greatest glory?
It's the revelation of the mercy of His Father.
So if what we are being called to do is to reflect the mercy of the Father to bring the greatest glory to God, you must recognize that what Jesus has done, what the apostle Paul has done, is say, "You want to be this transforming agent in the world?
Don't just think about the world.
I want you to think about your family.
I want you to think about your friends.
I want you to think about your neighbor.
I want you to think about your coworker.
There are people who desperately need a pathway to the gospel.
They need to know the grace of God.
And it's by our speech and our reactions and our actions that that becomes clear.
Honest talk, honest talk to one another.
Some of our children may not come back to the Lord until after we are gone.
Some of our children may be converted at our own funerals.
Some of our friends may not come to know Christ until after we have long moved from the neighborhood.
Some of our workers may not know the gospel until they've gone to the other company.
But if we have the gop--, the opportunity to sow the seeds of the gospel in their hearts and lives, to make the path a bit easier for them to actually see the gospel is real, how's that going to happen?
We'll give them some forgiveness now, some kindness now.
By the way, not because they deserve it.
Not because they deserve it: Because you did not deserve it when you were forgiven.
And that's why the apostle says it with such power at the end.
"Forgive one another, as God in Christ forgave you."
You didn't have it straightened up.
You couldn't make it right.
You hadn't fixed it, and He forgave you.
When you came to Him, He forgave you.
What is going to make others understand that, our children, our loved ones?
We'll give them some grace.
Forgive them and watch the power of it or even if you can't see it, in faith believe God will use it in His time.
Gladys Staines, missionary in India with her husband, Graham, for 34 years, in 1999 lost her husband.
Graham along with their two pre-teen sons were in a car in a town in India, which was attacked by Hindu militants, doused in gasoline and set on fire.
The incident, of course, even at that time when terrorism was not so much talked about made world headlines.
But what made the headlines even more was her response to the murder of her husband and to her sons.
She wrote, "When I learned that my family was dead, I told my daughter, 'We will forgive them.'"
She said to the newspaper reporters, "How was I able to forgive?
The truth is that I myself am a sinner.
I needed Jesus to forgive me.
Because I have Jesus in my life, it is possible for me to forgive others."
Now, you must know something: that when she talked about the forgiveness of Christ enabling her to forgive those who had been so cruel to her own family, that made the headlines, too, and it actually created greater rage in India against her and her family.
But with the rage, the message spread.
So that another missionary reported this: "A man came to me when I asked him, 'Do you understand who Jesus is?'
And his response was, 'Is that the same Jesus that Gladys Staines believes in?'
'Yes,'" said the missionary.
Said the man, "'I want to know that Jesus.'"
And then years later when the daughter of Gladys Staines was at university and fellow students began to press her, "Why should you forgive?
Why would you forgive?"
She wrote her mother these words, "Mummy, I can't understand that they can't understand."
[Laughter]
"Why we would forgive, because receiving and giving are of the same cloth."
As I forgive, I understand how great is my forgiveness.
As I forgive debts, I understand no matter how great is my debt, my God's grace was greater.
God is calling us today to recognize the reality of our calling.
We have received much, so that we would give much.
What will change the people around us and in us and make us the instrument of God's calling?
Forgive as God in Christ has forgiven you.
And the gospel will rule.