Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. – Ephesians 4:32
Psychologists say forgiveness is letting go of your right to resentment or anger against someone who may have wronged you. It is a conscious and deliberate act. On the human scale, forgiveness is not suggesting that what has been committed is excused, or even that it is tolerable. In his book, When Bad Things Happen to Good People, Rabbi Harold Kushner suggests you should forgive but remember… so that you would be alert, lest the same wrong be done to you again. A quote often attributed to St. Augustine says that failure to forgive or holding onto resentment is “like drinking poison and waiting for the other person to die.”
Thankfully, God’s forgiveness is not like any of those. Psalm 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.” Hebrews 8:12 says that God forgives your sins and remembers them no more. What compassionate forgiveness that is! God expects the same from you as today’s verse says. It is a difficult undertaking that can only be accomplished through the grace of God working in and through you.
Your life is a reflection of Jesus and His Gospel. Freely love. Freely forgive. Ask God to reveal to those in government whose hearts have been hardened that He offers free grace and forgiveness to them also, that many might come to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.
Today’s Verse: Ephesians 4:32
Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Recommended for further reading: Colossians 3:12-17
12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. 17 And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
All Scripture quotations and audio are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
