Ephesians 4:31

“Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice.”

                Any prideful feeling of offense by a correction, any slight spark of wrath that impress on me to bark an insult or respond in a hateful and hurtful matter, any though of jealousy or bitterness, I need to make war on them and subdue them by the spirit. I must make an effort to die to myself moment by moment and not let these selfish characteristics swell up in myself. When I receive a correction or a rebuke, I need to suppress and kill any thought of justifying myself by tearing down my corrector, or self-righteously compare myself to other Christians. Any anger, or resentment or the slightest pride, I must declare them as an enemy to the cause of Christ and the gospel and ask the Holy Spirit to work in me humility and self-control.

                Application: When being corrected, or offended or hurt by another person, I need to receive them with grace and not let these things described in this verse to swell up within my flesh. After any altercation that produces these emotions, I need to pray and ask my Father to forgive me of these selfish, anti-Christian emotion or thought and accept them as wrong, though they may seem right at the time. By this I follow Paul’s earlier exhortation: “do not let the sun go down on your wrath.” (Ephesians 4:26)