And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by him you were sealed of redemption. (31) Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.  (32) And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.  5:1. Therefore be imitators of God as dear children.  (3) And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling aroma. 

The letter to the Ephesians was written by the apostle Paul. He has already shown his readers how to put off the old way of life and in the instant of faith in Jesus we are reborn and put on our new way of life. First there is justification in faith and now the process of sanctification which ends only in our death.

In our verses today Paul is laying down the foundational principal of Christian life. The new man/woman in Jesus will walk in love as imitators of God. To become imitators of God we must become children of God in Jesus – and not all people are children of God.   Just because men were created doesn’t make it so. It all comes from God to man, not the other way around.

Paul tells the faithful to be renewed in mind; to commit ourselves to God in Christ. He then gets specific concerning transformation of the faithful; we are admonished to put off bitterness and anger. Our perspective, our purpose; the passion and focus of life has spiritually and radically changed. Much like the miracle of the recovering alcoholic with the consuming need to drink having been lifted, the spiritually new man wants a close relationship with God, led by the Spirit. We are advised to tame our temper – that bitterness that refuses reconciliation – to speak in truth. Walk in love. Remove slander, malice and clamor from our lives, and forgive others.

We have been forgiven at great cost by grace, not by merit.  I love to close by quoting c.s.Lewis on forgiveness; “We believe that God forgives us our sins, but also that He will not do so unless we forgive other people their sins against us. There is no doubt about the second part of this statement.  It is in the Lord’s Prayer; was emphatically stated by our Lord.  If you don’t forgive you will not be forgiven. No part of his teaching is clearer and there are no exceptions to it. “