Bearing With One Another

Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.

Ephesians 4:2

What does it mean to bear with one another in love?  We understand that this involves other people and how we relate to them.  It also implies a reciprocation, because we bear with one another in a spirit of self-sacrifice.  Because this counsel occurs in the context of walking worthy of our calling as saints, we immediately look to Christ to see how He bore with others in love.  We find Christ often bearing with others who presented Him with a variety of weaknesses.  The disciples, the masses, and even so worthy a person as John the Baptist, all demonstrated the weakness of their humanity from time to time.  Christ bore will all of these people in love and does with us as well.  He sets the example for us to bear with one another in love.  As we daily interact, the more we will see these quirks and twitches.  As the Spirit conforms us to Christlikeness, we learn to bear with one another in love.  Christ is the example, Whom we can imitate all our life, that we may grow to be like Him and do as He does.

Our Gracious and Loving God,
we rejoice that You have set Christ before us.
as the great example of forbearing love.
We praise You that day-by-day we can look unto Him,
as the great example Whom we can imitate
in our relations with one another.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning