And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day 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, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you. (5:1) Therefore be imitators of God as dear children. (2) 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. In our verses today we are unambiguously urged to holy living as God is in us – at the moment of faith we are sealed by the indwelling Spirit. We must remember that the Spirit dwells in others as well as ourselves and offensive conduct (speech, thoughts, actions) wounds the Spirit as well as ourselves. This doesn’t mean the Spirit finally withdraws but withdraws the manifestation of His presence which robs us of our joy.
The mind itself is the seat of passions and desires and the expressions of misplaced passions. Any form of speech from anger to either wound or injure others injures us: not only do we lose the sense of the Spirit’s presence, it creates distance between ourselves and God – we should ask who moved? Paul exhorts us to put away all malice and leaves no wiggle room for anger. We cannot afford it. We have been reborn as new creatures in faith in Christ and we are not just to “let go and let God”. We are not to just practice restraint but to deal with how we think – to get over bitterness and stop blaming others in disappointment and to stop justifying ourselves. Don’t keep score. As c.s. Lewis wrote: “Everyone thinks forgiveness is a lovely thing until he has something to forgive.” We are to forgive just as we have been forgiven. In Christ God remembers our sin no more.
We have a new life and relationship with God who chose us. Love is a conscious choice, not just an emotion. We are to consider behavior that characterizes a believer and not to walk in the ways of this world; we are to behave the same way before man as before God. We will imitate God by forgiving but also become dear children of God by walking in love.