Ephesians 4:32

After warning against bitterness and anger in the preceding verse, Paul offers the positive replacement: "be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another." Kindness is active goodness toward others; tenderheartedness is a soft, compassionate heart that feels for people rather than hardening against them. Together they describe a warmth that is the opposite of bitterness. And the crowning instruction is forgiveness -- the deliberate release of wrongs done to us, the refusal to keep a ledger of offenses.

Paul then anchors all of this in the gospel: "even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." The pattern and the power for forgiving others is the forgiveness we have already received. We do not forgive in our own strength alone, nor as those with nothing to forgive in ourselves; we forgive as people who have been forgiven much. This grounds the command in grace and removes the excuse of self-righteousness. Having been shown such mercy through Christ, how can we withhold it from others? For the reader, this verse offers both a calling and a source. The calling is to kindness, compassion, and forgiveness in the give-and-take of daily relationships. The source is the immense forgiveness God has extended to us. Remembering how much we have been forgiven softens the heart and makes forgiving others possible.