Of the twenty-nine One Another admonitions that are found in the New Testament, the first two contain caveats which instruct us how to follow those particular One Another instructions. Last week I wrote about the call to Love One Another, today I want to share some thoughts about the call to Forgive One Another.
When writing the church in Ephesus, the Apostle Paul said, “Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:30-32).
I have been doing pastoral counseling for forty-eight years. And during those years I have witnessed this, nothing has ravaged and tormented individuals more than their unwillingness to forgive someone who has wronged them. Let me explain.
I believe that when one is born again that they are forgiven of all their transgressions, past, present, and future. I believe this because of the witness of scripture. Colossians 1:13-14 says, “And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross.”
Though our sins have been forgiven, the transformation of our character into the image of Christ requires a daily walk of obedience. Remember the words of Oswald Chambers? “God does not make us holy in the sense of character; He makes us holy in the sense of innocence; and we have to turn that innocence into holy character by a series of moral choices.”
As Christians, if we refuse to forgive one who has transgressed against us, we will be turned over to the torturing and tormenting and ravaging effects of that unforgiveness. It does not matter who our grudge is against or why. If we hold on to it, it will lead to bitterness that will poison every fiber of our being, every aspect of our lives. Unforgiveness brings with it spiritual famine that will not only affect us but everyone in our circle. Only one thing can free us from the torturers, forgiveness that comes from the heart.
What does it mean to forgive one another from the heart? What does it look like? The following example speaks to this matter in a powerful way.
In 1946 Czeslaw Godleski was a member of a gang that roamed and ravaged the German countryside. On one farm they gunned down ten members of the Wilhelm Hamelmann family. Nine of the victims died, but Hamelmann himself survived his wounds. Godleski was eventually arrested and sentenced to prison. After completing a 20 year prison term for his crimes, the state would not release him because he had nowhere to go. When Wilhelm Hamelmann heard of the situation, he asked the authorities to release Godleski into his custody. He wrote in his request, “Christ died for my sins and forgave me. Should I not then forgive this man?”
Forgiving one another has nothing to do with stirring up spiritual emotion for another; rather, it is the making of a moral decision that has the power to remove hatred and bitterness from our hearts.
When you forgive in the manner that Christ has commanded you to forgive, you will find that a captive is set free, and much to your surprise you will find that the captive is you.
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