Isaiah - Verse By Verse

Walking through Ephesians - Day 98

versebyverse | February 21, 2008 20:18

Thought:  To me, there is a crying, growing need in our culture for compassion and forgiveness.

Question:  Has God forgiven me anything?  Do I pass that forgiveness on to others?

Scripture:  Ephesians 4:32 (NIV):  "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you."

In keeping with verse 24, we must not only put off the negative, we must also put on the positive.  So here we have the "antidotes" to bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and malice, or shall we say, the way to shunt off their effects.  (Why must we learn forgiveness to deal with the effects of sin in others if all of us are commanded to "get rid of all" of them?  I suppose because we haven't gotten rid of all of them, and while yet in process, their effects spill out over us all.)  The antidote is the same one God uses to save us!  It is His kindness and compassion that moved Christ to condescend into death for us; it must be our kindness and compassion that allows for others to do better, to persevere, to go on in the faith.  We must exercise forgiveness against these evils in others while we ourselves work at "getting rid of" them within our own souls.  A doubly challenging course, isn't it?  Be hard on self while nice to others; kill sin in self while forgiving it in others.  This is the work of the Christian life and heart.  Love others and self while hating everyone's, including my own, sin.  This is how God treats us:  loving us ferociously while abhorring thoroughly the sin in us.  We must follow in God's example.

There is only half success, or in other words, failure, if we only put off the old nature and never put on the new nature of Christ.  In fact, I feel that we cannot  fully, or for very long, put off any sin without putting on Christ.  The enemy will come into such a void and refill it with much more evil.  (See Matthew 12:43-45.)  We have to fill the space with Christ.  We are, each one of us, either filled with allegiance to Christ, allegiance to Satan, or in process with a mixture of the two.  But we are never supposedly free of allegiance to Satan while supposedly remaining neutral.

Unity of believers is improved with kindness, compassion and forgiveness.  Just as Christ gathers many sons to Himself and carries them on into Glory with His forgiveness, so we can edify the body and see it grow beautifully while we forgive.

Prayer:  Father, for the sake of the church, help me to exercise kindness and compassionate forgiveness, even as I have received these things from You.  Amen. 

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