In the church life the believers need to forgive one another. Peter asked the Lord, “How often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (Matt. 18:21). The Lord answered, “I do not say to you, Up to seven times, but, Up to seventy times seven” (v. 22). Then He used a parable to explain what He meant (vv. 23-35). Verse 35 says, “So also will My heavenly Father do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from your hearts.” If we do not forgive our brother who sins against us, we will be disciplined by the Lord; only once we have forgiven him from our heart will the Lord forgive us.
If we do not practice the way of repenting and forgiving, the longer we remain in the church life, the more offenses will accumulate. In the end the accumulation of offenses will cause us to lose the church life. May the Lord grant us the grace that we need. If we have offended someone, we need to repent to him. If someone has offended us, we need to look to the Lord for grace to forgive him from our heart. Once we have forgiven an offense, we should forget it and never mention it again. If we practice this, we will maintain a proper church life.
Another verse that speaks of forgiving is Ephesians 4:32: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ also forgave you.” Only when we enjoy Christ as our joy and life supply will we be tenderhearted. If we are tenderhearted, we will forgive others.
In our daily life we need to forgive others and ask for others’ forgiveness. This is necessary because we are easily offended, and we easily offend others. If we offend others, we need to ask for forgiveness. If we are offended, we need to forgive, even as God in Christ also forgave us.
In Colossians 3:13 Paul says, “Bearing one another and forgiving one another, if anyone should have a complaint against anyone; even as the Lord forgave you, so also should you forgive.” The forgiving Lord is our life and lives within us; forgiving is a virtue of His life. When we take Him as our life and our person and live by Him, our forgiving of others will be spontaneous; it will become a virtue of our Christian life.
If we genuinely forgive someone, we should also forget the offense. Once we have forgiven someone concerning a certain matter, we should never mention it again. To mention the offense indicates that we have not released the person who offended us. According to the New Testament, to forgive is to forget and to release. We need to forget the offense and release the offender. Once we have done this, we should never mention the matter again.
The meaning of forgiving is to not be offended. Once we forgive someone, we are no longer offended by him. If we do not forgive, we are offended. Forgiving annuls the offense. In the church life, we should avoid offending others, and we should also avoid being offended by others. We should always be careful and watchful not to offend others, and at the same time, we should always be willing to forgive.
As the believers corporately experience the dispensing of the Divine Trinity by living in the church life, they are being built up in the church. In regard to Christ being the cornerstone, Paul says in Ephesians 2:22, “In whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit.” The word you refers to the saints in a particular locality, and the word also indicates that the building is local. According to the context, the “dwelling place of God” in verse 22 is local, whereas the “holy temple” in verse 21 is universal. In verse 22 Paul says that the local saints, the saints in Ephesus, were being built together in Christ into a dwelling place of God. Therefore, in verses 21 through 22 Paul speaks of the universal aspect as well as the local aspect of the church. All the building...is growing refers to the universal aspect; being built together refers to the local aspect.
In these verses Paul carefully points out that it is in Christ that local saints are built together into a dwelling place of God in spirit. They are not being built together in regulation, practice, or opinion. We can only be built together in the all-inclusive Christ, who is our peace, foundation, and cornerstone. Moreover, when we are built together, we become the dwelling place of God in spirit. The word spirit in verse 22 refers to the believers’ human spirit, which is indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God. God’s Spirit is the Dweller, not the dwelling place. The dwelling place is the believers’ spirit. God’s Spirit dwells in our spirit. Therefore, the dwelling place of God is in our spirit.
Verse 21 speaks of “a holy temple in the Lord,” while verse 22 speaks of “a dwelling place of God in spirit.” These verses show that the Lord and our spirit are one. To be in our spirit is to be in the Lord. Likewise, to be in the Lord is to be in spirit. “He who is joined to the Lord is one spirit” (1 Cor. 6:17). It is impossible to separate our spirit from the Lord. Therefore, our spirit is the place in which the church is built. The building is not in our mind, emotion, will, soul, or heart; rather, it is altogether a matter in our spirit. For this reason, if we desire to be built in a locality, our disposition and our being must be dealt with. Nothing can test the degree of our spiritual maturity like the building. Furthermore, to be built in a locality is a great help to our spiritual growth. If we are willing to be built into the church in our locality, we will greatly grow in life.