We are called to trust and live into our reality in Christ—we are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:7). We must sink our roots deep into grace and grow into our identity, reality, and calling in Christ.

This means taking off our old ways, our old nature and practices. Yes, Paul lists the typical sins of the pagan world, including immorality. But what about the “old ways” that hinder us today? Pride? Judgment? Fear? A lack of generosity? Trusting in ourselves rather than truly trusting God? Anger? Anxiety? Malice we may even harbor secretly?

In their place, we are called to put on a new nature, choosing to live out new ways and practices that reflect Christ. We are called to unity in diversity, bound together by true love, compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, tolerance, and forgiveness. Paul places particular emphasis on forgiveness, grounding it in the forgiveness we ourselves have received from God.

These qualities may sound soft, gentle, even easy. But we know better. Jesus, who calls us to “love your enemy,” invites us into a difficult way of life—one that we cannot live out in our own strength, but are empowered to pursue through the Holy Spirit.

Compassion, kindness, tolerance, and forgiveness become especially challenging when we choose to rub shoulders with people who are different from us—in culture, habits, and lifestyle. Yet these are the very people with whom we are called to be the church. For beneath our differences, we share the same humanity: we are wounded, broken, and sinful. We are all capable of hurting one another, just as we are all capable of being hurt.

This is church. This is where our faith is stretched, where we grow, and where transformation takes place. And it is not always comfortable. In fact, it is often through that discomfort, as we learn to love and live alongside one another in the grace of Christ, that we become more fully who God has called us to be.