Christ-Like Words and Actions Build Community

Arsène Wenger (longtime Arsenal manager): “No one likes to be criticized. Few people get better with criticism, most respond to encouragement instead. For a player—for any human being—there is nothing better than hearing ‘well done.'”

Wenger sounded the same note we find in today’s reading from Ephesians. As with soccer teams—but on a much larger scale—we see across our country and around the world the sad results of attitudes and words that tear down community and set people against one another. Resurrection’s aim follows Ephesians 4:29: “Only say what is helpful when it is needed for building up the community.” Treating one another in un-Christlike ways—”bitterness, losing your temper, anger, shouting, and slander”—damages and often destroys relationships. Letting Christ change you from the inside out grows qualities like compassionate honesty, kindness, and a forgiving heart. God works through these qualities to strengthen and heal our relationships with “teammates,” whether in family, workplace, community, or God’s family. Paul concluded with breathtaking language: “Imitate God like dearly loved children.” Our model for kindness, forgiveness, and building up others isn’t just a good ethical theory—it’s God’s own character, displayed in Christ who “loved us and gave himself for us.”

• Scholar N. T. Wright wrote, “People… enslaved to anger and malice may think they are ‘free’ to ‘be themselves’, but they are in bondage.” * Have you said hurtful words and then wondered, “Why did I say that?” What helps you understand your feelings before you blurt out damaging words? Before forwarding that email or posting that tart social media response, are you willing to ask: “Does this give grace? Does it build up? Can I picture Jesus sending this?”
• Today’s reading didn’t say, “Act nicely to others no matter how much you despise them inside.” Scholar William Barclay noted that Paul used the Greek word chrēstos for “kind”—”the disposition of mind which thinks as much of its neighbor’s affairs as it does of its own.” ** Paul told us to forgive others as God forgave us—to treat others as Christ has treated us. In what specific area of life—family, workplace, online interactions, faith community—do you most want to live this way? Where do you most need Christ’s help to genuinely treat others as he has treated you?