Paul's letter to the Colossians sheds light on the holy way that he believes a Christian should live. As "elects of God," followers must "put on...bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering."
It is so much easier to do evil rather than good. Pride is something that we are born with, but we must "put on" humility, learn it and practice it over time. As elects of God, all followers of the Church must be lowly and compassionate to everyone.
If only it were this easy! I have been guilty of pride more times than I can count, but these times always made me feel worse and more importantly, made others feel worse. "Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly" (Proverbs 3:34).
How do we give grace to the lowly and be meek when we want to be proud? By imitating the Lord. There is no greater gift from God than that of forgiveness, and there is no greater gift that we can give.
The call to imitate and instructions for action are scattered throughout the Bible, with none more similar than in Ephesians 4:32, "And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." We have also heard the instructions to ask for forgiveness and forgive in the Lord's prayer: "And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:12).
I think that a good practice that people do not do enough is trying to "put themselves in another's shoes." To understand Paul's message in this verse, put yourself in the shoes of the lowest you can imagine.
Would you still be prideful? Unforgiving? Impatient? Angry?
Blessed are the meek, and longsuffering is a virtue required of all Christians, important in the time that this verse was written and today. Go forth and love one another, no matter how high or how low, remembering that there God is far above us and humbles Himself so that we can imitate Him.
