Put on the new self, created after the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness. ( Ephesians 4:24 24 and put on the new man, that after God hath been created in righteousness and holiness of truth. )

Christianity means change is possible. Deep, fundamental change. It is possible to become tenderhearted when once you were callous and insensitive. It is possible to stop being dominated by bitterness and anger. It is possible to become a loving person no matter what your background has been.

The Bible assumes that God is the decisive factor in making us what we should be. With wonderful bluntness, the Bible says, “Put away . . . all malice” and be “tenderhearted” ( Ephesians 4:31 31 Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and railing, be put away from you, with all malice: –32). It does not say, “If you can . . . ” Or, “If your parents were tenderhearted to you . . . ” Or, “If you weren’t terribly wronged . . . ” It says, “Be . . . tenderhearted.”

This is wonderfully freeing. It frees us from the terrible fatalism that says change is impossible for me. It frees me from mechanistic views that make my background my destiny.

And God’s commands always come with freeing, life-changing truth to believe. For example,

• God adopted us as his children. We have a new Father and a new family. This breaks the fatalistic forces of our “family-of-origin.” “Call no man your father on earth, for you have one Father, who is in heaven” ( Matthew 23:9 9 And call no man your father on the earth: for one is your Father, `even' he who is in heaven. ).
• God loves us as his children. We are “beloved children” ( Ephesians 5:1 Chapter 5 1 Be ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children; ). The command to imitate the love of God does not hang in the air, it comes with power: “Be imitators of God, as loved children.” “Love!” is the command and being loved is the power.
• God has forgiven us in Christ. Be tenderhearted and forgiving just as God in Christ forgave you ( Ephesians 4:32 32 and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you. ). What God did is power to change. The command to be tenderhearted has more to do with what God did for you than what your mother did to you. This kind of command means you can change.
• Christ loved you and gave himself up for you. “Walk in love, as Christ loved [you]” ( Ephesians 5:2 2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell. ). The command comes with life-changing truth. “Christ loved you.” At the moment when there is a chance to love and some voice says, “You are not a loving person,” you can say, “Christ’s love for me makes me a new kind of person. His command to love is just as surely possible for me as his promise of love is true for me.”