-In light of (and on top of) everything else that Paul has already said is true of us in Christ (forgiven, reconciled, made alive with Him), he adds here that we have been chosen by God, we are holy, and we are being loved. We are set apart for God Himself by God Himself - we are exclusively His, a treasured object of His affection. He loves us and cares about us deeply, more than we can know, constantly always and forever, without end or limit (Romans 8.37-39, Ephesians 3.17-19). But with that, we have a high calling, having been set apart to be communities of people who represent the divine attributes and eternal purposes of God such that those outside get a glimpse of what God is really like.
-Loving others, treating them the way God has treated me, is a supernatural act to begin with, but it is not even in the realm of possibility for me in my seflish, me-first me-better brokenness to consistently relate to other broken people with mercy and humility and patience and kindness. So there is the obvious need for me right at the outset to proceed in complete dependence on the Lord, this to enable me to treat all people in general and my fellow Christ-followers in particular in the ways that God in Christ has treated me, genuinely and consistently, even when I don’t feel like it.
-Paul repeatedly returns to this concept of who I am in Christ in this section. What I do, how I am supposed to act and treat others, derives directly from my identity - my new one. In Christ I am no longer who or what I used to be. I am completely different, I am a totally new person. The life of Christ is (or is supposed to be) being repoduced in me - because Christ Himself lives in me. He is my life now. The old things are gone, buried, and who I am is now hidden in Christ. Specifically I have been chosen and called to be connected to a gathered community of fellow believers in Christ that looks and lives and treats its members differently. We relate to one another as Jesus would. Compassion. Kindness. Humility. Patience. Mercy. Forgiveness. Love. Gentleness. Peace. Worship. Gratitude.
-Bowels of mercy: your heart is moved by the misery and misfortune of others. It is not necessarily limited to feelings, but can and in this case would include actions.
-Kindness: helping others, generous, benevolent, benefitting them. Remember that the Son of Man did not come to be served but rather to serve...
-Humility is low-mindedness. Paul unpacks this in Philippians 2.3-4 - it’s a mindset of others-first, others-better. Putting them, their needs, their interests, before me and what I want or need. This is exactly what Christ Himself did. But for us this one is really impossible. Parents are of course called to do this on a daily basis, which is a daunting task, but here we’re talking about consistently doing this for all believers, not just for the 2 point 5 little ones who might call me their parent. And it is not just a putting others first, it means regarding them as better, more important. I defer to them, I treat them with respect and honor. I get past myself and my inflated sense of superiority and self-importance and ego, I let go of the things which I think might make me better than someone or anyone else - my intelligence, my looks, my education, my height, my wealth, my ideas, my training, my experience, my choices, my convictions, my theology. I also need to get past the perceived deficiencies of others - their age or lack of intelligence or education or good looks or status AS I SEE IT, past whatever handicaps or shortcomings I might see in them. I need to get off whatever pedestal I’ve put up for myself and get down on my mental knees and really see others as more important than me. That is humility. It is not saying that I am a bad person or a crummy Christian. It is about elevating others even as I look at my own self appropriately and accurately, as God sees me. Yes, I AM chosen. I AM dearly loved. But I am not better than anyone else. Far from it.
-Gentleness is tender and mild in temperament and behavior. It is strength under control, as opposed to letting one’s strength or authority be unleashed in ways that are harsh, heavyhanded, rough, severe, unpleasant, unduly exacting, damaging even. I think many well-meaning parents, myself included, struggle in this regard with their kids. But rather than straining out gnats and putting heavy burdens on people we should be making their burden light. The Lord relates to us in this manner - He Himself is gentle (Matthew 11.29, 2Corinthians 10.1, Isaiah 42.3), and He held gentleness up as one of the primary virtues (Matthew 5.5). It is being restrained and soft in our dealings with others, giving them grace and freedom to fail and disappoint. We are commanded to respond with gentleness even towards those who oppose us (2Timothy 2.25, 1Peter 3.15).
-Patience is long-suffering, the willingness and ability to keep on suffering and enduring things which might otherwise provoke us to complain or retaliate or otherwise distance ourselves from a fellow believer. A long fuse, as it were, slow to anger. We don’t easily or quickly give in to frustration or provocation. Again, this is precisely how the Lord relates to us (2Peter 3.9).
-Again, each of these and collectively all of them are way beyond our ability to reproduce on our own, even with us being on the receiving end of the perfect example set for us by Christ Himself. And yet, He DOES live in us and He is precisely Who we have be (re)created to be like - newness of life, a whole new quality of life, a new man - divine, godly, like God in every way including and especially in my dealings with others, the very life of Christ filling me and spilling out to those around me. An awesome impossible...yet not at all too difficult for almighty God.
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