Speaking Grace in our Homes and Local Churches

“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.” – Ephesians 4:29

The New Testament uses family language to describe the local church. We are brothers and sisters, the household of God, and as Paul says in Ephesians 4, “we are members one of another.” We belong to one another and labor with great care the building up of this household for God’s pleasure. Our heavenly Father commands your mouth, which He created for His good pleasure, to speak grace toward the ears of His beloved church to build her up.

The reality of Christ’s cleansing of your heart is displayed in the purity of our speech (Luke 6:45). Our Lord commands your mind renewed and heart pure to love His church, and He sanctifies His beloved by His truth to put away “all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander along with malice” and “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:31-32).

In this new year, make this doctrine an emphasis in your home. Encourage your household how to think purely and speak about purely the other households in the church of Jesus Christ. This means our marriages and homes must be atmospheres which greatly discourage corrupting talk and commands repentance for corrupting thoughts of other members of the local church. This also means we must cultivate homes with the foundation of Christ’s peace to speak only what is good for building up and speaking grace to one another.

There is something beautiful in speaking blessing to one another. Whether another family in our church family is struggling or well, communicate blessing to their ears to hear. “God bless your home with His peace, brother,” is something that must resound in the hallways of a church building far more than criticism. May God grant you wisdom, restore peace and joy, comfort you and your home, protect you for the evil one, remind you and your home of His steadfast love and mercy. 

To speak a blessing, not simply as the act itself but from the heart, can only come from a Christ-like love and care for each other with tenderness and forgiveness (vs32). A genuine love from someone being matured in Christ to labor and build up His church in peaceful unity (Ephesians 4:12-13). May God bless you and your home by His truth that you may bless the other members of Christ’s church. May He build us up for His good pleasure.

Heavenly Father, forgive our hearts of any corrupting thoughts and purify our hearts and minds by Your truth. As You have forgiven us in Christ, grant us tenderness to forgive others in Christ. Grace our mouths, which You have created for Your good pleasure, to speak grace in our homes and toward one another. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Redeemed Marriages

“Wives, submit to your husbands, as is fitting in the Lord. Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.” -Colossians 3:18-19

Recently I ran an errand to the grocery store where I witnessed an older married couple make snappy comments to each other aisle after aisle. She would start with making a snappy comment about him over something trivial, and he would return a snappy comment about her. The expressions on their faces displayed for each other and for the world a relationship of joyless conflict. 

The wisdom of God in Colossians 3 commands we Christians to put on as God’s beloved people set apart from the world “compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience” (3:12). Our Christian relationships, especially our marriages, are to be a place for “bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive” (3:13). Husbands, love your wives by leading this bearing with your wives. Lead in forgiveness from a compassionate heart of kindness, humility, meekness, and patience with her. Wives, you are not to be in competition with your husbands, but in the fitting of God’s pleasure, submit to your husband with the same Spirit given character.

Our conflicts arise, not because of our disagreeable spouses, but sin in our own hearts. God told Eve after the Fall in Genesis 3 that the wife’s desire will be the competition to be like her husband, desiring to lead, and her husband’s response will be to lord it over her. The hope of the marriage of Adam and Eve which was broken by sin came in the previous verse: a Messiah will come and crush the head of the serpent. The Lord has forgiven us through Jesus whose heal was bruised to crush the serpent’s head, so wives peacefully submit to your husbands as fitting to the Lord and husbands love your wives without lording over them. 

Since the Fall in the Garden, every marriage is the fitting of two sinners in need of grace. You enter sin in your marriage as does your spouse. Worldly marriages display joyless competition and conflict, making comments of each other where they can do nothing right. No encouragement. No peace. Bitterness and preference rule the hearts in conflict. Confess your sin of competition and pride of heart to your spouse and seek Christ to bear with each other in His peace to rule in your hearts (3:15). Put on Christ’s love “which binds everything together in perfect harmony” (3:14). Anything in contrary to this command of God upon our Christian relationships, especially our marriages, is sin to be repented of.

Heavenly Father, forgive us of hearts ruled by pride, competition, and preference. May our hearts be ruled by Christ’s peace, our relationships a display of Your love, and our marriages point to Christ’s relationship to His bride, the church. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

Be Merciful

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” -Luke 6:36

Jesus is not a weak Savior begging us to be like God, but a mighty Lord commanding obedience. The King has purchased His people, and He claims complete ownership over you. As King, Jesus commands us to be merciful. What is the measure of how merciful we are to be as people? What example, definition, likeness are we to imitate and be merciful? King Jesus says, “as your Father is merciful.”

When I think about how God has been merciful to me a sinner, my heart swells. Oh, how ugly has my mind, my heart, my words, my actions have been! Yet, God has treated me with undue kindness. In my joyful obedience to the Father, the source of my own mercy in heart is to look no further than the merciful heart of God Himself. 

God is “rich in mercy,” and by His great love for us He is rich in kindness and slow to anger (Ephesians 2:4, Psalm 145:8). The objects His rich mercy are sinners deserving quick anger. His merciful kindness isn’t simply in words, but His mercy is a relief to those in misery. In Jesus’ parable of the good Samaritan, Jesus described the Samaritan’s response to seeing the beaten man alongside the road as “being moved with compassion” (Luke 10:33) and proved to be in obedience to God’s command to love his neighbor having “showed mercy.” Then Jesus commands, “Go and do likewise.”

Do mercy by being a relief to those in misery. Be slow to anger toward those deserving quick anger. Be rich in kindness. Be forgiving. Be gentle. Be meek. Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful. These are the marks of the renewed heart of the one having put off the old and put on the new creation in Christ. 

Are you a safe place for the miserable to find relief? Are you a safe place for sinners deserving your temper to find a rich kindness? Are you a neighbor showing mercy? This cold, dark world must have Christians with blazing hearts driven to glorify the merciful Father by showing His mercy! Display God’s perfect patience and be rich in kindness and mercy, dear chief of sinners, for that is God’s reason for showing you mercy (I Timothy 1:16).

Heavenly Father, forgive my prideful, arrogant heart of any boasting in my lack of showing mercy! Be a relief to my sinful, broken heart according to Your rich kindness. Relieve my heart to be merciful as You are merciful to me and to all sinners who seek refuge in the mighty Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.