"31Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: 32And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you." (Ephesians 4: 31-32)
These verses hold great promises for us!
Yes, they do. If anyone claims that the Bible is not practical, then they need to learn more about how much God has forgiven them.
In my religious training, I was taught that I had to confess my sins in order to be forgiven.
Yet clearly, from this passage, we have been forgiven from all sins already!
Earlier in the Epistle, Paul comments:
"14For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition between us15Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;" (Ephesians 2: 14-15)
When Paul writes that the the ordinances were "abolished", he is not submitting that God threw away His Laws, but rather rendered them inoperative, because Jesus our High Priest, through His obedience (2 Corinthians 10: 5), fulfills them on our behalf to this day, and thus we live through Him (1 John 4: 9).
As for 1 John 1: 9, that passage is written to non-believers, individuals who did not have fellowship yet with John or the Apostles or the Body of Christ.
Another hindrance to bitterness has to do with our "old man", which still hands on us, like a loose garment. For this revelation, look to the previous chapters in Ephesians 4:
"This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, 18Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: 19Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness. 20But ye have not so learned Christ;" (Ephesians 4: 17-20)
Paul does not want anyone to act as if God is still angry with them, as if He does not care, because He demonstrates His love for us in giving us His Son (Romans 5: 8)
Further in Ephesians 4:
"If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness." (Ephesians 4: 21-24)
Much of the time, we are trying to put out fires which cannot burn us anymore. Our feelings and our thoughts may drift toward this fallen world, yet we have a new standing, a new citizenship in Christ, and He is interested in us walking according to this new standing:
"Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;" (Ephesians 2: 19)
The issue is not so much about "forgiving", but rather reckoning ourselves dead to sin (Romans 6: 11-12), acknowledging that we are no longer "dead in Adam", full of vengeance and spite, but now alive in Christ. While residual sentiments of bitterness may fly up, we are not to waste our time trying to put out those fires in our flesh, but allow the shield of faith to quench those fiery darts.