“Bear with each
other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone.
Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”
Colossians 3:13
Let’s consider
this: Who is an encourager?
I can almost hear some of you saying: “I can
do that!”
But today’s topic
tends to bring a lot more silence in our ranks than encouragement does.
Nonetheless, if we
want to love as Christ loves then we must forgive others even as we are
forgiven.
Uh-oh, the silence
was just broken by a familiar lament –
“But you don’t
know what they did to me; I cannot forgive them!”
It’s familiar
because most of us have made the same protest at one time or another.
You cannot walk on
this earth without being offended.
That is true of
believer and unbeliever alike.
We are not only
commanded to forgive but we have
the ultimate
example of forgiveness through Jesus Christ.
You see, if anyone
ever could lay claim to be wrongfully used, accused and abused it was Jesus.
He did not simply
‘tolerate’ it until a later date when he could exact revenge.
He said: “Father,
forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” – Luke 23:34
Now some of you
think you just discovered a loophole.
Jesus forgave them
in their ignorance but the people who hurt you knew exactly what they were
doing so you are not required to forgive them.
Sorry, it doesn’t
work that way.
Jesus didn’t run
‘disclaimers’ with His command.
He has forgiven me
when I have sinned in ignorance.
He has forgiven me
when I have sinned willfully and knowingly.
So, if I want to
show Christ’s love to others I will:
…forgive as the
Lord forgave me.
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