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Last week

• It’s not about you.
• Truth, wisely spoken, leads to thriving relationships. (25)
• Anger can become a platform for Satan transform you to be like him. (27)
• Our words and deeds are to be for the building up of others. (28-29)

Read Ephesians 4:22-32 

Relational wholeness with the Spirit of God is essential to personal peace. (30)

• We were sealed in him—he is with us and in us. Ephesians 1:13; John 14:17
  
  
• It is a relationship that operates optimally when we yield to His leadership.
  
  
• Ultimately, we can delight him, and we can grieve him. 

We grieve the Spirit when we choose a destructive path in our relationship with others. (31)

• Bitterness—holding on to an offense to a point where the mere thought of a person galls you.
  
  
• Rage and anger become your default impulse towards another.
  
  
• We “shout” (better translation than “brawling”) down another person to be heard over them.
  
  
• Our words are used to lower the standing (slander) of a person before others.
  
  
• Our actions become intentional in seeking the failure (malice) of another.

Harmony with the Spirit of God is evidenced in our relational wholeness with others. (32)

• Kindness is chosen as a response or action towards a person regardless of their attitude towards you.
  
  
• Compassion becomes the motive by which you engage others.
  
  
• Forgiveness is not withheld but freely given as one who has been forgiven much.

There is a direct correlation between the health of your relationship with God and the health of your relationship with others. 

• Be proactive in settling matters with others before presenting gifts to God. Matthew 5:21-26
  • Sermon on the Mount was primarily concerned with getting beyond the surface and dealing with the heart.
  • You cannot fool yourself to think I can be right with God while I neglect brokenness with others.

• Be proactive in relational wholeness before participating in Communion which is meant to be a practice of unity before God. 1 Corinthians 11:17-34
  • There is relational consequence between us and God when we fail to be unified in our participation of Communion. (29-32)

James 3:9-10 “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be.”

Questions to consider:

1. Am I grieving the Spirit of God in me by the way I am currently treating people around me?
   
   
2. How am I doing in showing kindness, compassion, and offering forgiveness towards others—especially with those who are most difficult to love?
   
   
3. Is there someone I have malice in my heart towards that I need to reconcile with?