Read: Colossians 3: 12-13

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  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.

Reflect:

Can you remember how you damaged a relationship with someone else? Can you still remember the pain of being hurt by someone else? Why then is it that we, as human beings, are so eager and willing to receive forgiveness, but are often so unwilling to give forgiveness to someone else?

Jesus addressed the issue straight on in Matthew 6: 14-15

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Then, in Matthew 18: 23-35 Jesus told the parable of the servant who owed an impossible amount of money to the king. In his compassion, the king forgave the debt and the man left his presence only to show no compassion to someone else. The servant didn’t get it. He didn’t understand grace or mercy or the importance of forging others.  He thought he could be the beneficiary of grace, but he had no desire to respond likewise to others.

Respond:

Forgiveness is what God gives to free us and others from the weight of relational failure. If we want the kind of life that God promises us, forgiveness is God’s solution.