Eph 4:2 With all lowliness and meekness, with long-suffering, bearing one another in love, (3) Being diligent to keep the oneness of the Spirit in the uniting bond of peace:
To have lowliness is to remain in a low estate, and to have meekness is to not fight for ourselves. We should have these two virtues in dealing with ourselves. Long-suffering is to endure mistreatment. We should have this virtue in dealing with others. By these virtues we bear one another; that is, we do not forsake the troublesome ones but bear them in love.... The problem, however, is that in ourselves we cannot be either lowly or meek. If we are honest and sincere, we shall admit that we have no genuine lowliness or meekness. On the contrary, we tend to exalt ourselves and to fight in defense of ourselves. Just as we do not have lowliness or meekness, we are not long-suffering and we cannot bear others in love. Nevertheless, Paul charges us to have such a worthy walk. ...But these virtues are to be found in our transformed humanity, that is, in the humanity of Jesus. In Matthew 11:29 the Lord Jesus said that He was meek and lowly in heart. Meekness and lowliness are characteristics of the humanity of Jesus. Any meekness or lowliness that we may seem to have in ourselves is a pretense and cannot survive any real testing. Praise the Lord that the humanity of Jesus in His resurrection life can be ours today! The more we are transformed, the more of the humanity of Jesus we have. By having the humanity of the resurrected Christ, we spontaneously have the virtues required to keep the oneness of the Spirit.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Ephesians, pp. 308,309. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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