I am beginning to prepare for Ephesians 4 this Sunday.Wow. Challenging and humbling passage of Scripture.One of the things I often do when preparing is read through Calvin's sermons on Ephesians as a sort of devotional. I found his message on Ephesians 4:1-5 incredibly insightful. Listen to some of the following quotes as he thinks through what it means to be humble and gentle and patient."For if we must make a close scrutiny of whatever we see to be amiss in every man, we shall surely have occasion to reject both small and great, for there is no man who is not blemished with some evil.""But whatever happens, we must not be discouraged until we have so far prevailed over ourselves as to know that there is nothing in us to cause us to be esteemed but rather, he who thinks himself to be the most excellent ought . . . to be ashamed and abashed to his own confusion. And for proof of this, when we have thoroughly viewed all that we pride ourselves on having, with which to gain favor, dignity or reputation among men, certainly we shall find that every whit of it is the free gift of God."". . . we shall never be meek, never have any gentleness and mildness in us, until we are brought low."". . . to be kindhearted, and to be consistently gentle and friendly, all pride must first be beaten down in us."". . . let us also observe that kindheartedness is the mother of patience and continually produces that fruit, and that if we are too stern, it is a sign that there is cruelty in us and that we are like wild beasts. . . It is true that we ought to be grieved at the faults of our neighbors, and we must not feed them by our flattery, as the common fashion of the world is. But yet our zeal must be so moderated that we forgive a great deal, for we ourselves also have need to be forgiven; we must not be more exorbitant with other people than we would they should be with us . . .""Our zeal ought to be mixed with kindness, for if it is sauced altogether with vinegar, what will come of it? There will be no savour to it. Therefore it must have some oil joined with it. And so there must be something of grace in all corrections with which to sweeten them so that they are not over rigorous."". . . there are two evil extremes . . . One of these evil customs is that a man cannot be accepted by the world unless he flatters. Whoever means to be accepted must be one eyed, and must shut his eyes when he sees a number of things in his friends worthy of blame. And yet in the meanwhile, is not such silence a breach of faith? . . . The other evil extreme is when we are so rigorous that every little fault is enough to make us speak in tones of thunder. Since this is so, we shall never have the spirit of meekness mentioned before, if we are not guided and governed by God's Spirit . . . And by this a man may see and judge that there is a certain pride lurking within us, by which we take too much to ourselves. To be short, there is never any excessive rigour without cruelty, nor cruelty without pride. Whoever despises his neighbors prizes himself too much, and he that can overlook nothing but is so terribly stern that all sins are in his opinion unpardonable, shows also that there is no humanity in him. So much the more therefore we must bear in mind what St. Paul shows us here which is to know how to forgive. Not that we should approve men's vices or that they should have license to do evil without rebuke. We should patiently rebuke men's faults and be sorry for them, but in so doing our duty we must not forget also to bear with the frailty and weakness of our neighbors, so that we do not confound them or drive them into such despondency that they fall into despair, when they see there is no forbearing or forgiving at our hands.""If then we think we are approved by God and love does not reign in us, we deceive ourselves. The world may applaud us, but our whole life will be utterly loathsome, until love is established in our hearts, so that she governs, and we tend always to that end, yes, and perform all our works by her. Now then, seeing that love is the true perfection of the faithful and of God's children, let us see what it consists of. For if a man boasts that he has it, and in the meanwhile has neither lowliness, nor gentleness, nor patience, he makes the Holy Spirit a liar, who not without reason shows what is signified by charity or love. For he has not set down the bare word and simply said, be loving, but he has also shown us what is meant by it.""Even the heathen had the sense to say that if we had the wit and discretion to see the vices that are in ourselves, we should be patient towards others. Why? I have need to be borne with myself, and if I do not the same with other people, how unjust am I! This consideration alone ought to subdue us sufficiently, though there were neither law nor gospel. Therefore since we know that love includes humility, gentleness and patience, let us learn to be patient, not only when any wrong is done to us but also when we see our neighbors week and feeble and not yet come to such perfection as is requisite."