Be Nice extending grace to others

BE NICE

Our CLCB Vision slogan is BE CHANGED, BE NICE, BE USED. I have written about BE CHANGED in the previous blog. Let's now think a little bit about the BE NICE part.

As God in His infinite and amazing niceness extended grace to us, so we are called, as those who have received His grace, to be nice in extending Grace to others.

This idea of extending grace can be found in the Greek word charizomai which is translated as forgiven in Colossians 2:13. This verse speaks of God 'having forgiven us all our trespasses'. We could say that this verse speaks of God having extended grace to us.

Charizomai is also used in Ephesians 4:32, where it is translated as 'forgiving'. This verse speaks of our 'forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.' In other words, we forgive and extend grace to one another as God forgave and extended grace to us.

The idea of being nice and extending grace to others is developed in Ephesians 4:28-32 in terms of nice not nasty deeds, words and thoughts, as follows:

Nice Deeds of sharing not stealing.

v28 - 'Let the thief no longer steal, but rather let him labor, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need.'

Nice Words of helping not hurting.

v29 - 'Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.'

Nice Thoughts of love not hate.

v31-32a - 'Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. [32] Be kind to one another, tenderhearted'

And then in verse 30, we are told to be sure that we 'do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.' Not grieving the Holy Spirit, but making sure that He (God's Spirit) is happy to keep working in our lives is possibly the greatest secret to being nice and extending grace. The Holy Spirit is very sensitive. We don't want to hurt Him. We want to let Him work freely in our lives enabling the flow and extension of grace to others. And Ephesians 4:28-32 is saying that all those nasty deeds, words and thoughts are what can 'grieve' and hinder the present day working of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. If we may have grieved Him, lets repent (See Psalm 51:9-11) and invite the Holy Spirit to come and happily work his flow of grace in our lives today.

From it's foundation in 1926 as an inter-denominational church, CLCB's redemptive gift as a church has been unity. Unity requires that we extend grace to others and express the niceness of Jesus into whose image God's Spirit is transforming us (2 Corinthians 3:18).