Well hello to everyone!
This is the last Sunday in 2015. Is it really possible that in just a few days, we will be writing “2016” on our letters, memos, reports, college research papers, etc.?
The nitty-gritty … Okay, now with the niceties out of the way, let me get down to the nitty-gritty. Do you ever wonder at the craziness and absurdity and downright weirdness that is sometimes evident in the fellowship of Jesus Christ?
Let me be more specific … The craziness concerning forgiveness.
- An Overview of the Problem: God in his Bible teaches us to forgive one another as God in Christ forgave us. Many don’t do this. Many more accept the disobedience of the first group as okay.
How in the world do we justify, as members of the body of Christ, our unwillingness to forgive? And don’t pretend that you haven’t run into this in your life and in your local fellowship.
Forgiveness in the Christian faith, forgiveness of sins, is kind of important, right? I mean, if we as the Church are about anything, shouldn’t we be “about” forgiveness?
And, yet, many of us mightily struggle with forgiveness as taught by God in his holy book the Bible.
- (Ephesians 4:32 ESV) Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
And … not only do many struggle with this, but just as bewilderingly, many others accept this lack of forgiveness from the “good Christian people” who are their brothers and sisters in Christ. Indeed in the Church, in our local fellowships, we “turn a blind eye” to the flagrant disobedience of this pillar of our faith.
Why?
Why do we do this? Here are a few reasons.
- We don’t want to be “the bad guy.”
- Downplaying this sin is very acceptable in Bible-believing churches.
- We do not understand what truly goes on when we refuse to forgive as God teaches us to.
- We do not study/research the topic because we don’t want to know because then we might have to do something about it. (See #1 above.)
- Also, something about those living in glass houses … We don’t want to get our own house in order.
So why should we address this problem?
- God teaches us how to forgive in the Bible.
- Many are disobeying God when it comes to this very clear teaching.
- We are weak because of our disobedience and inattention to this sin.
- Those who are being disobedient in this way are responsible for their actions, but we as a fellowship are also responsible.
- We need to teach that walking with God is better than walking in disobedience no matter how sticky the conversations may become.
- We are not faithful to our brothers and sisters in Christ if we do not help them understand what is going on inside their lives when they rebel against God in this way.
- Etc, etc. I don’t have time to write a book here. Got it?
Message Title: Forgiveness!
Message Text: Ephesians 4:32 & Selected
