In the church life the believers forgive one another. Peter asked the Lord, “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Until seven times?” (Matt. 18:21). The Lord replied, “I do not say to you until seven times, but until seventy times seven” (v. 22), and then He gave a parable as an illustration (vv. 23-35). Matthew 18:35 says, “So also shall My heavenly Father do to you if you do not forgive each one his brother from your hearts.” If we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, we shall be disciplined by the Lord until we forgive him from our heart. Then the Lord will forgive us.
If we do not practice the way of repentance and forgiveness, the longer we stay in the church life, the more offenses there will be. Eventually, the accumulation of offenses will cause us to forfeit the church life. May the Lord grant us the grace we need. If you offend someone, you need to go to that one and repent. If someone offends you, you need to look to the Lord for grace to forgive that one from your heart. And once you have forgiven an offense, you should forget it and never mention it again. If we do this, we shall maintain a proper church life.
Another verse that speaks of forgiveness is Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as also God in Christ forgave you.” Only the enjoyment of Christ as our life supply and as our joy can make our hearts tender. If we are tenderhearted, we shall forgive others.
In our daily walk we need both to forgive others and to ask others to forgive us. This is necessary because we are easily offended and we easily offend others. If we have offended someone, we need to ask for forgiveness. If we have been offended, we need to extend forgiveness to others, even as God in Christ has forgiven us.
In Colossians 3:13 Paul says, “Bearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone should have a complaint against any; as the Lord forgave you, so also should you forgive.” The forgiving Lord is our life, and He lives within us. Forgiving is a virtue of His life. When we take Him as our person and live by Him, forgiving others will be a spontaneous virtue of our Christian life.
If we have truly forgiven someone, we shall also forget the offense. Once we have forgiven someone in a matter, we should not mention it again. To make mention of an offense indicates that we have not released the one who offended us. According to the New Testament, to forgive means to forget and to release. We need to forget the offense and release the offender. Once we have done this, we should never speak of the matter again.
To forgive means not to be offended. As soon as we forgive someone, we shall not be offended by him. But if we do not forgive, we shall be offended. The point here is that forgiving annuls offending. If we do not forgive others, we shall be offended by them. But if we forgive them, we shall annul the offense.
Suppose a certain brother offends you and you forgive him. Your forgiving of him will annul his offending of you. Then there will be no problem between you. However, suppose this brother offends you and you are not willing to forgive him and forget the offense. This will cause trouble, especially to you, for you will become entangled as the result of being offended. In the church life we should avoid stumbling others, and we should also avoid being offended by others. We should always be careful and cautious not to offend others. At the same time, we should always be willing to forgive.
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