We’re not supposed to correct our children
in anger. Ephesians 6:4 says: “Fathers, do not
irritate and provoke your children to anger [do
not exasperate them to resentment] but rear
them [tenderly] in the training and discipline
and the counsel and admonition of the Lord”
(The Amplified Bible). And chapter 5, verse 1
says we are to “be…followers of God, as dear
children.” In other words, we are to imitate
God as children imitate their parents.
When we miss the mark, God doesn’t hit
us with a barrage of verbal abuse! Rather, He
corrects us with gentle reproof, and that’s the
way we’re to correct our children. When we’re
angry, if we’ll just stop for a few minutes and
thank the Lord, it will change the way we
discipline them.
This approach will work in any situation
where there is a temptation to tear into
someone with cruel and unkind words. When
someone crosses you on the job, at school, or
wherever, instead of letting your mouth be
filled with verbal abuse, fill it with praise to
God. He is worthy of your praise! If you are
thinking about how good God is, you can’t be
talking about how bad others are!
Many believers don’t realize it, but that
is what Jesus meant when He said we are to
take up our cross and follow Him. People have
some strange ideas about what their cross in
life is. Some think it’s sickness. Others believe
it’s poverty. Still others think that their unruly
teenagers are their cross to bear. But the only
thing you will never be rid of in this life—your
cross to bear—is unkind, hard-to-love people.
There will always be someone who will try to
provoke you. In order to stay out of strife, you’ll
have to take up the cross and follow Jesus.
How did Jesus respond to unlovely people?
He imitated His heavenly Father and
spoke the Word of God. He said, “The words
I speak are not My own. I only say what the
Father tells Me to say” (see John 8:28). And
John 3:34 tells us that because He only spoke
the Word of God, He had the Spirit in an unlimited
measure. The power of God was Jesus’
vindication in every situation, not smart-aleck
words! He didn’t use any flippant words. He
only said what the Father told Him to say.
In Ephesians 4:29-32, we find the kinds of
things the Father is telling us to say:
Let no corrupt communication proceed
out of your mouth, but that which
is good to the use of edifying, that it
may minister grace unto the hearers.
And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the
day of redemption. Let all bitterness,
and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and
evil speaking, be put away from you,
with all malice: And be ye kind one to
another, tenderhearted, forgiving one
another, even as God for Christ’s sake
hath forgiven you.
Notice the words even as. We are supposed
to imitate God no matter what the
circumstances are. We are supposed to be
acting like God, speaking His words and
doing His work.
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