2024-10-25
Good Morning Dear Ones,
We’ve looked last week at the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant from MT 18: 23-35, which shows the relationship between patience, mercy, and forgiveness. If you don’t remember this parable, please review it. Patience is the vessel by which God pours out His mercy, and mercy is fueled by forgiveness. The Greek word for forgiveness is has its origin in “aphiemi or aphesin” which means to let go of one’s power and/or possession, to dismiss, to send away, to give freedom, to pardon, to deliver, to give liberty, or to remit. In the usage in connection with forgiveness of sin in COL 1: 4, for example, it is pronounced [af’-es-is]. For those interested, its Strong’s number 859.
Christ’s teaching on forgiveness is encapsulated in MT 18: 21-22. “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, ‘Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?’ Jesus answered, ‘I tell you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.’” Then, he spoke the Parable of the Unmerciful Servant. He doesn’t make His point in just this parable; Jesus also makes it in the Lord’s Prayer, MT 6: 12, “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespasses against us.” There is more in, MT 6: 13-15, “And lead us not into temptation but deliver us from evil. For if we forgive others when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” One way to reveal the mystery of God is to engage in what the Greeks called “makrothumia” or “patience” in English. The mystery of God is Christ in us. This patience is the ability to show mercy, to resist holding a grudge, even when one would have a right to do this.
Why must we forgive? Not doing so is counterproductive to leading a Christian life. Holding a grudge leads to bitterness and is the work of the devil. It hurts the grudge-holder more than the original wrongdoer. The light of Christ doesn’t shine on this kind of darkness. Sadly, it often happens at the time of the physical death of a loved one. People who think they should receive material gain as heirs, squabble about who should receive what and/or how much money. I’ve seen this happen over and over again, causing fractures in families. This is the kind of behavior that Christ teaches us to resist engaging in. Sometimes these grudges are borne out of other situations—misunderstandings followed by stubbornness, not receiving what is due, and cultural differences which are not understood, for some examples. Unforgiveness can torture the person who harbors it, until or unless he relents. Let me relate a story about this that I was reading. A pastor was taking a cruise of the Greek islands. His ship was to stop on one of them going and coming from its circuit. He knew a lady who lived on this island and visited with her when the ship reached its port. He could see that something was bothering her and asked her about it. She said that no matter what she tried to do in her church, nothing seemed to work out, and she didn’t know why. The wise pastor told her to pray that God would make His will clear to her, including the reason why she was having this problem. He would visit with her again when the ship was on its way home in a week. She agreed. A week later, something had happened to her, and her demeanor was entirely different. She was smiling and joyous. When he asked her about it, she explained that she and her mother hadn’t spoken for a long time even though they lived near each other. God told her to forgive her mother and make peace with her. She did this, finding her mother receptive to it. Suddenly, everything this lady did at her church was working out. The Lord had resolved her problem! She thanked the pastor, and he went on his way, thanking the Lord. This is how the back-breaking load of a grudge can be lifted to give new life—one of God’s ways of renewing relationships and making us whole again.
PRAYER: O Lord, how sweet forgiveness can be! 2 COR 10: 4-5, “The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” You teach us, in EPH 4: 26-27, “If you become angry, do not let your anger lead you into sin, and do not stay angry all day. Don’t give the devil a chance.” Dearest Father, we are so thankful and offer You praise for giving us these teachings. We say this prayer in the holy/mighty name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
NEXT WEEK: The Holy Spirit commands me to write about how Satan can establish a stronghold and what God can do through us about this problem. There are stubborn people who spend their whole lives not understanding the armor of God is available to them. Their lives are filled with negatives and misery. Satan’s stronghold is like a hardness that settles in their bodies and minds, like an enormous weight that they may not realize they are hauling around. God has the power to crack that weight up and expel it from these places, but only if the person doing all this heavy lifting is willing to cooperate. 1 PET 5: 8, “Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” Does God want this cooperation from us? You bet He does! Praise and thanks be to Him!
Grace Be With You Always,
Lynn JS 24: 15
© Lynn Johnson 2024. All Rights Reserved.
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