Resolutions (Ephesians 4:2-3)

New Year’s Day. This is often a time of resolutions. Did anyone make any resolutions this year? I had one friend who said that they would give up drinking for January – and then they thought about it a while and declared that they would give up drinking on Wednesdays in January.

This year I resolve to keep up my Bible readings (as I have done for many years) and my exercises – mostly stretches. The older I get the more I need to stretch. I was injured during covid and walked with a limp for well over a year and it was through my exercises that God made it so that I could walk without a limp again. It is the same with exercising our spiritual disciplines like prayer and Bible study. They strengthen us so that we do not get injured spiritually.

If any of us are looking for resolutions for a New Year, a New Life, Paul in Chapter 4 of Ephesians has some good suggestions. He says, “As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Therefore let us resolve to, Ephesians 4:2-3, “be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.” Let us:

1. Be completely humble and gentle (4:2a);

2. be patient, bearing with one another in love (4:2b);

3. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace (v.3).

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