In our reading from the letter to the Ephesians Paul wrote what could be titled as “rules for the new life” or “what to do if you would like to live a God-filled, faith-filled life”. In the verses we didn’t hear this morning, verses 17 to 24, Paul is encouraging the Ephesians to put away their former way of life, their old selves which were corrupt and instead be renewed in their minds clothing themselves according to the likeness of God.

In other words, transform yourself from your old ways and live into a Christ-like life in the name of God.

It’s challenging to be a new person in Christ Jesus. Particularly when we read the details of the new life that Paul describes about never being angry, or deceitful, or having malice in our hearts, or about never letting any corrupt words escape from our lips.

According to the letter Paul wrote if any of us have negative emotions within our heart or mind we are to let them go. Paul asks us to look within.

Have you ever said something to somebody that you later regretted? A fellow shared the story of how he got angry at the manager of his local dry cleaners and expressed his anger quite forcefully. He realizes now that he probably did not leave the manager with a very favorable impression.

He knows that because recently he put a red ballpoint pen in the breast pocket of his white shirt and forgot to put the cap on it. It made a ghastly red stain with a dark center all over the pocket. His wife said, “It won’t wash out, I’ll try the dry cleaners.”

So, his wife took the white shirt with the dark red stain on the shirt pocket to the very dry cleaner where her husband had exploded in anger. The manager took a long, slow look at the dark red stain on the front of the shirt and then looked sideways at the fellow’s wife and said quietly, “Good shot.”

There are some people who, when they get angry, they explode, and it is over in a short time. Then there are other people, who turn their anger inward.

Paul asked us to look inward and to examine these inner emotions that are a part of being human. You see, our inner condition determines the way we respond to our lives. It is not what comes to us from the outside that determines our behavior; it is what is already on the inside. As someone has written, “Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it. Nothing more than that. It is the witness to your state of mind. The outside picture of the inward condition.

Maybe you remember the old story about the guy who got into the bad habit of cursing all the time. Every time he got angry he let out a phrase that he should have kept to himself. After he had let out a tirade in the presence of his young son and his son echoed back some of his choice words, he decided he needed to get rid of this vile habit. He went to his pastor for help.

His pastor said that every time you get angry why not try singing a hymn? That way you won’t express your anger in an inappropriate way. The young father said he would try this, “But,” he said, “I don’t know many hymns.” So the pastor gave him a hymn book to use, and the man took it and tried it.

In a couple of weeks he came back to the pastor. The pastor said, “How are you doing?”

The man said, “I’m doing pretty well.”

The pastor said, “That’s great!”

The man said, “There’s only one thing.”

And the pastor said, “What’s that?”

The man said, “I’m ready for a new hymn book.”

Take care of what’s inside you. Looking on the inside is the beginning. Paul, also, advises us to look outward. That is, take care of our relationships. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted……….”

You see, faith never stops with an inward look, faith always looks outward. “Be kind and compassionate to one another . . .” Such kindness and compassion are contagious.

There is a wonderful story that comes from the life of Albert Schweitzer. A number of years ago on his way to Aspen, Colorado, Schweitzer changed trains in Chicago. As he was standing on the station platform he was being questioned by reporters. A woman carrying a heavy suitcase walked past. Immediately Dr. Schweitzer excused himself. He walked over to the lady, took the heavy suitcase from her and accompanied her to the car of the train she was boarding. Then he turned and walked on back to where the clustered group of reporters had been. They were no longer there. Seeing Albert Schweitzer’s helpfulness, they started looking for some lady with a heavy suitcase whom they might help on to a train, too.

Furthermore, there was a reason Albert Schweitzer helped that lady with the suitcase. He told about it in his autobiography. He said that he and his wife were boarding a train one day in Africa. They had an enormous amount of luggage with them and were having considerable difficulty. A physically handicapped man whom Schweitzer had treated in his mission hospital came forward to help them. He had no baggage, said Schweitzer, because “he possessed nothing.” Schweitzer was greatly moved by the man’s offer, which he accepted. While they walked along side by side in the scorching sun, Schweitzer vowed to himself that in memory of this man’s kindness he would in the future always keep a lookout at stations for heavily laden people, and help them. And this vow, said Schweitzer, he had kept.

Paul also shared that we must, “be forgiving of each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

But this is not all. He continued, “Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.”

There is the answer to malice and bitterness and anger. There is the answer for making us kind and tenderhearted and forgiving toward one another. We are to imitate God. We are to acknowledge and to remind ourselves of the great love and kindness and mercy and forgiveness we have received from God.

Nowhere in the scriptures does it say that this is easy. If we are to live a new life, if we are to be new people, we must be aware of our emotions, we must open our eyes to the opportunities for offering to another kindness, tenderheartedness and forgiveness. And we must also focus our eyes on God who comes to us with love, forgiveness, mercy and grace. May it be that each of us will become imitators of God and as God’s dearly loved children live a life of love, reflecting the love Christ had for us.” Amen,