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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.
Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes.
2 Corinthians 2:5-11
This ends today’s reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
We all are going to find ourselves in a place where we need to forgive someone and the longer we live, we see how this need happens many times over, sometimes with the same person.
This call to forgiveness is generated by our personal imperfections which can lead us to sin. None of are perfect and all of us are sinners who fall short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23). These two factors, coupled with the influence of our enemy Satan, drive us to places where we wrong and upset others, setting up the environment where forgiveness is in play.
Now, this doesn’t mean a person will forgive another. Sometimes hurt runs deep, so deep that it seems that a person’s actions are unpardonable. But that’s what makes forgiveness so amazingly potent when it’s exercised. It liberates a person from the anger and hatred that can poison a person from the inside out. In his song titled “Forgiveness”, Matthew West writes the following words on the subject:
It'll clear the
bitterness away
It can even set a prisoner free
There is no end to what its power can do
So let it go and be amazed by what you see through eyes of grace
The prisoner that it really frees is you.
Forgiveness
As we look to the cross and the crucified Jesus being mocked and ridiculed by the very sinners He came to save, we don’t find Him speaking words of condemnation or summoning legions of angels from the heavens to destroy those deriding Him. No, rather He simply said this:
“Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing.” Luke 23:34
Friends, if our Lord Jesus could forgive those assailing Him in those circumstances, we can forgive anyone ourselves. Therefore, the road to forgiveness for Christians is following the lead of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul certainly understood the matter of forgiveness. We see it in the words of today’s scripture passage from the second chapter of 2 Corinthians. Look again at his words here:
If anyone has caused grief, he has not so much grieved me as he has grieved all of you to some extent—not to put it too severely. The punishment inflicted on him by the majority is sufficient. Now instead, you ought to forgive and comfort him, so that he will not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. I urge you, therefore, to reaffirm your love for him.
Another reason I wrote you was to see if you would stand the test and be obedient in everything. Anyone you forgive, I also forgive. And what I have forgiven—if there was anything to forgive—I have forgiven in the sight of Christ for your sake, in order that Satan might not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. 2 Corinthians 2:5-11
Someone within the Corinthian church had caused considerable strife during Paul’s last visit to Corinth, even going as far as questioning Paul’s apostolic authority. The challenge to the Gospel work he was doing troubled Paul badly and this bitterness stuck with him as he wrote this second letter to the Corinthian church.
But note that Paul didn’t choose to allow his hurt to reign supreme in the matter. Rather, he shared guidance to the Corinthian Christians as to how they should handle what happened and this guidance was grounded in the power of forgiveness. Here are four ways this power is revealed when we choose to pardon vice condemn:
1. We remove the burden of excessive sorrow from the person needing forgiveness.
The aforementioned song, Forgiveness, was written based on a real life story. A woman had lost her daughter in a car accident caused by a drunk driver who was incarcerated for his crime. After years of anger and bitterness, the mother decided to visit the person who had taken her daughter’s life. She went to the prison to tell the man that she had forgiven him and as a result of her actions, the man came to believe in Jesus Himself. Nothing could remove the damage he had done but he could commit to trying to save people the rest of his life after his release in 2012 and he has done just that.
The woman’s forgiveness set the incarcerated man free from his guilt and sorrow, just as Jesus can set the sin captive free from the outflow of their transgressions. This is just one of the ways we see the power of forgiveness displayed.
2. We reaffirm our love for people and love unconditionally as does our Lord.
For God so loved the world that He gave up His only Son Jesus. He didn’t pick and choose who He would love. Rather, He loved everyone and didn’t see anyone beyond salvation if they would just believe in Jesus as Savior.
When we willingly and willfully forgive others, we show the very love of our Lord, a love we were called to.
3. We show obedience to what our Lord has commanded.
“...if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” Matthew 6:14
These are words from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount, His first extensive public ministry teaching.
His guidance is cautionary, right?
If you want to receive forgiveness from God, then you must forgive others when they sin against you. One event is contingent on the other.
If we are obedient to the scriptures, the very Word of our Lord, then we will forgive others and in turn, receive the gift of God’s forgiveness.
4. Finally, the power of forgiveness is revealed by how we thwart the schemes of our enemy, Satan.
Think about it. Satan is the anti-Lord in our lives. If God says to do one thing, Satan is sure to try and convince us to do the opposite.
God urges righteousness. Satan stresses wickedness.
God urges good. Satan stresses evil.
God urges love. Satan stresses hatred.
And when God calls for forgiveness, Satan stresses acrimony and condemnation.
This is how you can easily tell when Satan is actively working to influence you. You will always find your thoughts, words, and actions moving away from what God desires and this movement is always toward sin.
Forgiveness is far away from where Satan wants us to be. It powerfully moves us closer to Jesus and this will always be the place we need to be, the place where we should always want to be.
Is there anyone you need to forgive today?
If so, I pray you will allow this message to lead you to pardon and find the freedom that comes through the power of forgiveness.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
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