Ephesians 4:2

“with all lowliness and meekness, with longsuffering, forbearing one another in love”

“With”: This is. “statement of moral dispositions which should attend their walk conveying the idea of accompaniment” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 320). “All”: “All possible lowliness, or every kind of lowliness” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 320). “Being completely humble” (NIV). “Lowliness”: Humility. “Lowliness was much despised in the ancient world. The Greeks never used their word for humility in. context of approval, still less of admiration. Instead they meant by it an abject, servile, subservient attitude, ‘the crouching submissiveness of. slave'” (Stott p. 148). Unfortunately, many people in our modern society have the same view of humility. They perceive it to be. sign of weakness, and they claim that people will walk all over you, if you demonstrate humility. True humility is the result of proper self-evaluation (Romans 12:3), remembering the fact that one is blind without God (Jeremiah 2:23). We must have the proper view of the worth of others (1 Peter 2:3), and. proper view of the God we serve. Barclay makes some fine comments on this point: “To face oneself is the most humiliating thing in the world. Most of us dramatize ourselves. true humility comes when we face ourselves and see our weakness, our selfishness, our failure in work and in personal relationships. Christian humility comes from setting life beside the life of Christ. So long as we compare ourselves with second best. we may come out of the comparison well. It is when we compare ourselves with perfection that we see our failure.. girl may think herself. very fine pianist until she hears one of the world's outstanding performers.. man may think himself. good golfer until he observes one of the world's masters in action. Self-satisfaction depends on the standard with which we compare ourselves. The Christian standard is Jesus Christ and against that standard there is no room for pride. There is another way of putting this. R.C. Trench said that humility comes from the constant sense of our own creatureliness. We are in absolute dependence on God” (pp. 135-136).

This verse suggests that "pride" often lurks behind discord. Whether it is discord in marriage, in the home, or in the church, human arrogance is often to blame. “Humility is. becoming virtue in Christians because it reflects their evaluation of themselves in respect of the infinitely righteous and holy God. It is the fountain from which are derived all of the Christian virtues. Conceit on the part of. child of God is. denial of the faith” (Coffman p. 182). Coffman made. good point. In other words, the first step in successfully living the Christian life and in maintaining unity in. congregation is to recognize the fact that God is God, and we are not. Division starts to happen when man wants to elevate his view or opinion over the will of God (Romans 12:16; Colossians 2:18; James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5; ProverbEphesians 13:10 “Through presumption comes nothing but strife”. Humility is able to apologize and seek reconciliation, admit failure or sin and seek the will of God over it's own opinions. The humble man or woman says, “My own personal opinion is worthless, for without God's guidance. am an imperfect individual and morally blind” (Proverbs 16:25).

“Meekness”: Gentleness---“was warmly applauded by Aristotle. Because he hated extremes and loved ‘the golden mean', he saw in praotes (meekness) the quality of moderation, for example ‘the mean between being too angry and never being angry at all.' The word was also used of domesticated animals. Meekness is not. synonym for weakness. On the contrary, it is the gentleness of the strong, whose strength is under control. It is the quality of. strong personality who is nevertheless master of himself and the servant of others” (Stott p. 149). God expects the person with. "strong personality" to be under control as well. "Meekness" means being under God's control and in subjection to His will (James 1:21), and at the same time being on call to serve others (James 1:26). “Moses is. special biblical example of meekness (Numbers 2:3). Moses was not weak or spineless, but neither was he headstrong toward God” (Caldwell p. 157). “The weak person yields because he is helpless to do anything else; the meek person yields his strength because he seeks the well being of others” (Boles p. 265). “It does not mean docile, easy to handle, or merely ‘cooperative'. It refers to moral authority and power issuing in restraint” (Coffman p. 182).. have always been impressed by this word in James 1:21. The most important aspect of meekness is that the person who is "meek" is the individual who will always listen to the will of God and accept God's teachings no matter how hard they might be to accept or apply. It is the attitude in which true learning takes place, that is, it is the man who is "big" enough to admit his own ignorance, and it is also the attitude in which God can rebuke us and we will not resent Him. In his book "Flesh and Spirit", Barclay said of this quality, “It is when we have prautes that we treat all men with perfect courtesy, that we can rebuke without rancor, that we can face the truth without resentment, that we can be angry and yet sin not, that we can be gentle and yet not weak” (p. 121). Compare with Galatians 6:1; 2 Timothy 2:25; 2 Timothy 1:1 1 Peter 2:15. Vine notes “Described negatively, meekness is the opposite of self-assertiveness and self-interest; it is equanimity of spirit that is neither elated nor cast down, simply because it is not occupied with self at all” (p. 56).

“With longsuffering”: Fortitude, patience, forbearance. Longsuffering does not overlook sin (Matthew 18:15; Galatians 6:1), rather it is patience that always leaves the sinner with an opportunity to repent (Romans 12:19). “Perhaps the best way for us to ‘lengthen' the fuse on our tempers is to remember how much God has forgiven in our own lives” (Boles p. 265). Compare with Ephesians 4:31; Colossians 3:13; and Matthew 18:21. Coffman reminds us, “If God had been. man, He would long since have wiped out the world for all its disobedience!. Christian who is always up tight about the mistakes of others can create. disaster in any congregation. He, in fact, is. disaster!” (p. 182). Sometimes we forget that since God has forgiven us and has endured our imperfections, we are morally obligated to bear with the imperfections in others. Again, such "longsuffering" does not excuse sin and neither does it tolerate false teaching (1 Corinthians 5:1; 2 John 1:9), but it does treat others in the same manner that God has treated it, and refuses to use the sins of others as the reason why it can give up. “Christian patience is the spirit which never admits defeat. which will not be broken by an misfortune or suffering, by any disappointment or discouragement, but which persists to the end” (Barclay p. 138).

This is such an essential quality in the unity of any congregation, because the failings and apathy of other members can get us down. If we are not careful we can start thinking that nobody is serious about really serving God, and this is simply one way that the devil tries to convince us to quit. When discouragement moves us to inactivity, it means that the devil has broken us (Galatians 6:9).

“Forbearing one another”: This suggests that even fellow Christians will irritate us at times, but how soon do we forget that we do our own fair share of irritating others. Stott reminds us that "mutual tolerance without which no group of human beings can live together in peace” (p. 149). Since we are admittedly imperfect, "forbearance" is essential for unity to happen in. congregation. In practical terms this means we give people the time to grow spiritually (Hebrews 5:12), give people. chance to think things through, avoid making hasty judgments, and realize the difference between Divine commandments and realms in which personal preference is allowed. Remember. person is more apt to listen to us, if we correct our own problems first (Matthew 7:1). We give others the same slack and allowances that we can rightly give ourselves, understanding that there is. big difference between helping. brother out of sin (Galatians 6:1) and the practice of "fault-finding" (Galatians 5:15). One maintains unity, because it is unselfish, the other destroys unity. “In love”: “Has the high purpose of seeking to do what is best for the faulty brother. The idea of standing anything and everything for any length of time is excluded” (Lenski p. 508). “A forbearance having its motive, its inspiration, its life, in love” (Gr. Ex. N.T. p. 321). The love mentioned is the love described in 1 Corinthians 13:4.

This last phrase defines what type of forbearance promotes unity. It is not. forbearance of the world, that is, looking the other way, putting up with them, but secretly resenting them or just allowing people to do and believe anything they want. Instead this forbearance confronts sin with the attitude of wanting the sinner to be saved (2 Timothy 2:24; Matthew 18:15). Instead of gossiping and spreading discontent, this forbearance has the courage to talk face to face with. brother (Matthew 18:15). This forbearance does not result in bitterness, resentment, or revenge because it is motivated by. "love" that springs from the will and not from undependable emotions.