Forgiveness

While it would seem that a believer's heart would always take the day when temptation stands in the way of faithfulness, anyone who knows about the walk of faith knows the foolishness of such a thought.  Those folks who read the Apostle Paul's letter back in the early days of the growing church were really no different than those of us who are a part of the same church in the present day.  We should not be surprised to see Paul writing, ", "...be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you."  (Ephesians 4:32).  They needed the reminder as do we.

 

Sometimes disagreement can get so intense among church folks that a reminder to live with forgiveness is more than needed.  I remember a couple of guys who got into a wrestling brawl on the ball field as they argued over who was going to pitch in a church softball game.   And then, in another place two men got out of sorts somewhere along the way and they purposefully did not go to the Table to receive communion at the same time.  Of course, the ending of some stormy administrative meetings left a lot of us in need of forgiving one another.

Paul had us figured out.  Perhaps, he was tempted from time to time as we are tempted.  It is not always easy to live with forgiveness as a directive for day to day living, but nowhere in the book about following Jesus is easy promised.  What the Word calls us to do is to not depend on ourselves.  If we do, we are not going to make it.  What the Word calls us to do is to live our lives under the complete control of the Holy Spirit which means living as if we have no right to ourselves.  Only then does the possibility of forgiveness in every relationship become a reality.