OUR DAILY BREAD READING (Published Daily by Our Daily Bread Ministries)
READ: Ephesians 4 (Focus vs. 1–5 & 25–31)
“MEMORY VERSE
“Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.” Ephesians 4:2
BACKGROUND
I was sitting in my chair one morning years ago when my youngest came downstairs. She made a beeline for me, jumping up onto my lap. I gave her a fatherly squeeze and a gentle kiss on the head, and she squealed with delight.
But then she furrowed her brow, crinkled her nose, and shot an accusatory glance at my coffee mug. “Daddy,” she announced solemnly. “I love you, and I like you, but I don’t like your smell.”
My daughter couldn’t have known it, but she spoke with grace and truth: she didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but she felt compelled to tell me something. And sometimes we need to do that in our relationships.
In Ephesians 4, Paul zeroes in on how we relate to each other—especially when telling difficult truths. “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (v. 2).
Humility, gentleness, and patience form our relational foundation. Cultivating those character qualities as God guides us will help us “[speak] the truth in love” (v. 15) and seek to communicate “what is helpful for building others up according to their needs” (v. 29).
No one likes being confronted about weaknesses and blind spots. But when something about us “smells,” God can use faithful friends to speak into our lives with grace, truth, humility, and gentleness.
By: Adam Holz
INSIGHT
On his third missionary journey, Paul spent three years teaching the believers in Ephesus (Acts 19; 20:31).
Some six years later, concerned for their spiritual well-being and maturity, he wrote from a Roman prison (Ephesians 3:1; 4:1; 6:20) reminding them how God had so richly and graciously blessed them (1:3).
After extolling the privileges, position, and possessions they had because of Jesus (chs. 1–3), the apostle instructed them to “live a life worthy of [their] calling” (4:1), an exhortation that Paul similarly made to the Philippian (1:27), Colossian (1:10), and Thessalonian believers (1 Thessalonians 2:12; 2 Thessalonians 1:11).
The Ephesian believers were to be like Christ in how they treated one another—humble, gentle, patient, forbearing, loving, encouraging, kind, compassionate, and forgiving (Ephesians 4:2, 29–32).
APPLICATION
When has someone gently confronted you? What do you think is most important when you lovingly address a weakness you see in others?
PR’s (PASTOR RICHARD) TAKE
Don’t use foul or abusive (hurtful) language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.” Ephesians 4:29 nlt
PR’s RE-EMPHASIS(From Post)
“Humility, gentleness, and patience form our relational foundation. Cultivating those character qualities as God guides us will help us “[speak] the truth in love””
PRAYER
“Father, help me to humbly receive correction, and help me to offer it with love, grace, and gentleness.”
HYMN/WORSHIP/PRAISE/GOSPEL SONG
“WE NEED TO BUILD EACH OTHER UP” Gottalife Singers
We need to build each other up
We need to build each other up
Encourage one another
Come share your love around
We don’t need to pull each other down
We don’t need to pull each other down
But encourage one another
Come share your love around
Words can make or break us
Words can destroy or build us
So let us sow a word of hope
To someone else today
Words can make or break us
Words can destroy or build us
So share some encouragement today
But encourage one another
Come share your love around
READNG THROUGH THE BIBLE DAILY IN 2023
Exodus 1-3
Mathew 14: 1-21