Comprehensive Love | Gentleness
I meditated on this verse a while ago before a particularly tense leadership team meeting for a ministry I help with. I was feeling anxious and unsure of what I should say. I jotted a few thoughts down after that and wanted to share them. Maybe they will help you:
Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.
-Ephesians 4:2
1- Be patient with others weakness, you have your own.
2- Humility is not thinking less of yourself, but thinking of yourself less. (Tim Keller)
3- “Bear with one another in love”. The word “bear” implies it will not always be easy. If you wait until it’s easy to love, you do not understand love.
4- This follows Ephesians 2 where Paul talks about humility and how Jesus was humility incarnate. If we struggle with these characteristics, look to Jesus and watch Him.
5- You will not be perfect at these, that’s why it says “be completely…”. It means you are not currently complete in them, work on them.
6- If you struggle to do these towards others, remind yourself you are not easily love-able at all times. And yet, God loves you. And others do too. Extend what you long to receive.
7- This type of love is one of the most precious gifts you can give to another human being. Even more so when they don’t deserve it.
8- Loving unconditionally is not the same as trusting unconditionally. You are called to love at all times. You are not called to trust at all times.
9- This verse does not mean you don’t say honest words. It just informs how you say those honest words.
10- We know very little of others pains and weights. Yes, there is such a thing as too gentle. But I venture that it is easier to be too harsh, than too gentle. If we knew what others truly felt and faced in their life, we would be more gentle.
11- Humility helps us listen more, which is a needed gift we must offer to others.
Working to love better and more comprehensively,
Josh.