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Volume 33   Number 17 Apr 26, 2009

        Matthew 18:15-35 NLT: (Jesus said) "If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won't accept the church's decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
        "I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven. I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, My Father in heaven will do it for you. For where two or three gather together as My followers, I am there among them."
        Then Peter came to Him and asked, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" "No, not seven times," Jesus replied, "but seventy times seven! Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. He couldn't pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.' Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
        "But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,' he pleaded. But his creditor wouldn't wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
        "When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?' Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. That's what My heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart."
        In the above verses, Christ promises great authority and power to His church. However, these verses also carry a great responsibility. The promises of forbidding, permitting, agreeing, and answered prayer are sandwiched in between two aspects of church life: reconciliation and forgiveness.
        God demands forgiveness for anyone who has committed an offense against us. It is not an option. It is not simply good advice. There is even a threat of some type of imprisonment and a promise of harassment by some unknown group of tormentors tied to it. God's blessings and promises are often dependent upon our willingness to forgive and our activity in forgiveness.
        It can easily be said that spiritual power is based on our willingness to forgive, and many of the problems we face may be dependent upon our unwillingness to forgive. Unforgiveness can act as a barrier between us and God's blessings.
        Mark 11:22-25 ESV: And Jesus answered them, "Have faith in God. Truly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you have received it and it will be yours. And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses."
        THERE ARE SIX IMPORTANT PRINCIPLES CONCERNING FORGIVENESS we need to keep in mind.
        (1) We are created in the image and likeness of God; therefore, we are to reflect God's image and likeness by showing mercy and forgiveness. Matthew 5:43-48 ESV: "You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect."
        In Genesis 1:26: God says, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." Here we have God's first words concerning man and the first description of man's purpose. There is nothing more that reflects the image and likeness of God than our willingness to forgive those who have hurt us.
        (2) Because God is merciful to us, we are in turn merciful to others. To be unforgiving is considered as wickedness. Matthew 18:32-33 ESV: "Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you.?'"
        (3) Forgiveness releases one from the prison of hurt and anger. Matthew 18:34-35 ESV: "And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers until he should pay all his debt. So also My heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
        Strong emotions are bonding. They act as glue in all of our relationships. An unwillingness to forgive may bond us to feelings of hurt and anger. Release will come only when we forgive.
        (4) What we give out in life is what is given to us. What we measure others by is what God uses to measure us. This is a spiritual and unbreakable law. What we give out is what we get back. How we judge others is how God will judge us. Luke 6:37-38 ESV: "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you."
        Psalm 18:25-26: With the merciful You show Yourself merciful; with the blameless man You show Yourself blameless; with the purified You show Yourself pure; and with the crooked You make Yourself seem tortuous. If we show mercy and grace to those who have offended us, God will see that we are given the same when we need forgiveness. We all need mercy and grace from God since we will all offend someone else at some point in our life, whether we mean to or not. 1 John 1:8 ESV: If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves...
        (5) Forgiveness is an act of the will, not emotions. Deuteronomy 30:19-20 ESV: "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the Lord your God, obeying His voice and holding fast to Him, for He is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."
        Forgiving does not mean that you are going to experience emotions of forgiveness in the beginning or even forget the offense. Forgiveness simply means that you do not hold the offense against the offender. It is in most cases a step of faith in believing that God will bless us in our act of forgiveness. The fruit of forgiveness is usually not seen until after the step of faith.
        (6) Forgiveness is primarily for your benefit. God expects you to act in repairing the relationship and not waiting on the other person. The responsibility is on you. Matthew 5:23-26 ESV: (Jesus said) "So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny."
        In our relationship with God, it was He who made the first move in restoring us to His love. Romans 5:8 ESV: But God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
        God insists that matters of forgiveness and reconciliation be cleared up between believers. In Matthew 20:19, the word agree in the Greek means "to sound together, to be in accord or symphony." This is how God wants His body to function. Just as in the physical body, the same is for the body of Christ. All its members must be in accord with one another to function properly. If not, disease and sickness may set in. Body harmony is not an option, but it is the doorway to God's fullness.
        Pray and ask God to clear up anything that may be hindering His blessings in your life. If the Holy Spirit begins to move on your heart concerning a particular incident (don't be introspective but let God lead you in this), take the proper step to reconcile the relationship by forgiving or asking forgiveness.
        Psalm 103:8–10 ESV: The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities.

Rev. Ken Cole