Charles Ellicott Commentary Ephesians 4:32

"and be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you." — Ephesians 4:32 (ASV)

Kind... tenderhearted.—“Kindness” is gentleness in bearing with wrong (Luke 6:35; Romans 11:22; Ephesians 2:7; 1 Peter 2:3). “Tenderheartedness” (see 1 Peter 3:8) is more positive warmth of sympathy and love.

Both lead to free “forgiveness,” after the model of the universal and unfailing forgiveness “of God in Christ” to us—the only model we dare to follow, suggested by our Savior Himself in the Lord’s Prayer, and expressly commanded in Luke 6:36.

It is a forgiveness that, in us as in Him, does not imply condonation of evil, or even the withholding of necessary discipline, but which absolutely ignores self, conquers human selfish anger, and knows no limit, even up to “seventy times seven.”