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Ephesians 4.32 (NIV)
Be kind and compassionate to
one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
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| It is virtually impossible to represent a caring God if one does not have a caring life.* |
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Can
you be kind and compassionate without also being forgiving? And isn’t it hard
to be forgiving if you aren’t kind and compassionate? Paul knows the answer to
these questions. Here he lists some of the components of God’s love, showing us
what it looks like, and leading up to the big drum roll: God did it for us and
we must do it for others.
How
can a believer who has read these words be so unheeding of what is required of
us? You probably know someone who got mad and left the church because of some supposedly
heinous offense. Here are some cases that I am familiar with:
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when a bit of scandal came to light following
the break-up of a teen-age romance, one of the families left for another church;
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when one family was treated disrespectfully by
another family who then failed to show up at meetings which the elders had
arranged for the purpose of reconciling, both families left;
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a family left the church because no one cared
that the husband/father was out of work – never mind that they hadn’t bothered
to tell anyone.
I am not discounting the validity of
people’s feelings or denying that the forgiving process might require distance
from the offender, but when Paul says that we should forgive one another just
as God forgave us, he’s not talking about hurt feelings. God’s forgiveness
covers every awful offense we have committed against him – and not just the
ones we remember to apologize for!
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| We’ll be much more effective at loving our fellowman if we love our fellow believers.* |
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