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“As we forgive those who sin against us” Our Debtors “Love hardly notices when others do it wrong.” “Never stop repaying the Debt Of Love.” Forgiving Love – AGAPE – Shows – 1. In Action (something your do regardless of who they are or what they do to you) 2. In Re-Action (our attitude in responding to them) Not getting even. Not repulsive or proud. The world pays for performance with $ dollar recognition. (production, pay or paid) God’s gifts to the performer is by grace. (Love) FREE! (tetelisti – paid in full) What is paid in full? Our Sins? Is that how we want to be forgiven like we forgive others or the way Christ has forgiven us? A bell is not a bell until you ring it. A song is not a song until you sing it. Love is not Love until you give it away. 1. “Love God with all your heart.” 2. “Love others as you do yourself.” 1 + 2 = Agape Love. “Forgive Us as We Forgive Others” AS WE FORGIVE Our manner how! Love in action and attitude. Forgive the sinner, Their sin. (action, performance) Forgive the person. (performer, reaction, attitude) Love separates the sin from the sinner. (person) Love reacts to acts in forgiveness. Open Love (Agape’ love shows in action) by doing (vs. feeling or emotion) Saying “I love you” by our actions and reactions. (attitudes) Forgiving as we are forgiven -Not to condemn, nor condone, but to love them, (object of God’s love) Do we see others as forgivable as God sees them? “God demonstrates His love for us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him has everlasting life.” (Jn.3:16) “Entertaining Angels unawares.” Simply as God’s messengers. A message for today, this day in time. Be careful not to dismiss God’s message by a messenger (an Angel) that you may think is not relevant to you or say the things the way you would have imagined them. Hard messages are here just at the right time to prod your faith. Losers can learn to win if they just listen to others who have been tested by failure. Faith changes the mind from things you did not want to hear to desires for the heart of truth. “BE”ing open and vulnerable to change, not to condemn or condone, but to listen to reason. “Walking in the light.” Rights to wrong opinion is appalling. Socrates answer: “Opinions divorced from knowledge are ugly things.” Mere opinions lose their influence in the light of facts and proofs. The text of the test of faith is in the light of His presence from His Word to you. Don’t miss His shinning Angels. “The Lord is my light and my salvation, whom than shall I fear?” “As We Forgive ‘OUR DEBTORS” “As we forgive those who trespass against us.” It’s their sin against us. (Jesus in me) You thought you heard what I said, but I’m no sure what you heard is what I meant. (A memory misquote perhaps) Billboards put up around town in the early 60’s. Maybe it was something like: “I’m sure you heard what I said but I’m not sure if what you understood is what I meant.” The large communication Billboard captured attention even in today’s memory. Why was the AD run? Who knows? Relevant today? Only if you are sure you are misunderstood (and misquoted), used, bruised, afflicted, rejected. Jesus said, “It’s not you they hate, it’s Me.” “A man of sorrows, acquainted with grief.” Knows forgiveness; “BE”ing rejected for a debt of Love, paid in full with His life on a cruel cross was meant to “BE”. What we owe others today is still pay back time. A debt of Love is forgiveness in the midst of “BE”ing misunderstood. You meant it for their good, but their agenda avoids seeing what is meant by it. It’s the “IT” in forgiveness, Your reaction to their action. “Love covers a multitude of sins.” “Love hardly even notices when others do it wrong.” (Jack Hayford) “Sit down and let it go.” Let it go – clenched fist – open palms. We wear our self out – * being angry, * unforgiving, * hanging on. (R.T. Kendall) TOTAL FORGIVENESS – Introduction “You must ‘Totally Forgive’ them. Until you totally forgive them you will be in chains. Release them, and you will be released.” Might I add, get over it? “Faithful are the wounds of a friend.” “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” (Mt.6:12) “The debt of Love, never stop repaying that.” “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. . .” (Eph.4:30-32)
December 26, 2006 at 9:38 am |
Do you ever wonder why God allows so many people to annoy, despise, and provoke us? They disrupt our lives and dominate our attention. One answer is given in a profound analogy. God compares believers to stones that are being perfectly hewn out so that they fit together with every other believer in God’s Temple (see I Peter 2:5 and Ephesians 2:19–22).
The phrase fitly framed together is a present passive participle, which expresses continuous or repeated action that we receive. During the construction of Solomon’s Temple, there were 80,000 “hewers of stone” in the quarries. Each stone was so perfectly prepared that it needed no further hewing after it was put in place for the Temple (see I Kings 5:15–18; 6:7). If we view those who are hostile toward us as God’s hewers, we will be ready for the next command:
Command Ten:
“Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44).
David describes the “hewing” action of opponents: “Before I was afflicted, I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. … The proud have forged a lie against me: but I will keep thy precepts with my whole heart. … It is good for me that I have been afflicted; that I might learn thy statutes” (Psalm 119:67–71).
This testimony has certainly been true in my own life and ministry. The most powerful truths presented in the Basic Seminar have been “hewn out” by critics. They have motivated me to study the Scriptures more intently to clarify and refine what I teach.
The Basic Seminar itself was the result of hewers who were associated with the first youth ministry I directed. The Board fired me, with the challenge to prove the effectiveness of the Biblical principles I had been teaching young people. The promise expressed by the Apostle Peter has become a reality for me:
“… After that ye have suffered a while [the God of all grace] make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, settle you” (I Peter 5:10).
One reason God commands us to love our enemies and bless those who curse us is that He has higher purposes for them than simply making our lives miserable. He wants us to cooperate with Him in the process of developing maturity in our lives. The command does not apply only to conflict from “outsiders,” but also from those in our own families who “chip away” at us on a daily basis.
Let’s purpose now to welcome those who react to us, not as intruders into our lives, but as hewers sent by God to assist Him in improving our character and conforming us into the image of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The problem with God’s “hewers” is that sometimes they are so loud, aggressive, and forceful that we close our ears to what God is trying to say to us through them. Often God is trying to tell us:
Find balance in your life and message, because truth out of balance leads to heresy.
One of the most powerful diagrams in the Basic Seminar describes the development of concupiscence. This diagram has a “perfector” story behind it. The diagram was first presented to the student body of a Bible college. After this and other teaching was shared, a spirit of revival spread throughout the campus. Based on this overwhelming response, the college president urged me to return the following year.
When I arrived on campus, I was informed that one of the professors did not agree with my teaching and had been freely sharing his reaction with the students. The president and I met with him, and I asked what caused him to disagree. He said that the chart on the development of concupiscence was incomplete.
I had diagrammed only the spiritual aspects. Following our talk, I realized that there were also psychological and physical developments. By adding these two dimensions to the chart, it took on a whole new perspective, with much deeper meaning and clearer information on how immorality develops in a person’s life. In retrospect, I am very grateful to God for raising up this hewer, because millions of people have benefited from the outcome of the reaction that God stirred up in his heart.
Imbalance in one area of life will usually result in an opposite imbalance in another area.
Parents who become too strict with their children with rules in one area will often become too lenient with their children in another area. For example, one family overemphasized strict rules against any identification with the world, yet they failed to teach their children to love the Lord and walk in His ways. They emphasized religion, but not relationship. As a result they experienced reaction, not only from their children, but from other people as well.
As we continue to meditate on Matthew 5:44, we should ask ourselves if we have created enemies because they have seen imbalances or inconsistencies in our walk with the Lord. If this is the case, then God may be using our enemies to send us a message. If we listen to them and correct our imbalance, we will have new reasons to bless those who curse us.
Through Christ our Lord,
Bill Gothard
May 30, 2007 at 11:00 am |
I read the parable of the unjust servant in Matthew 18 many times before I understood the vital truth it revealed about forgiveness. A certain king had a servant who owed him 10,000 talents. When the servant could not pay it, the king commanded that he, his wife and children, and all his possessions be sold. The servant fell on his face before the king and pled, “Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” The king was moved with compassion and forgave the servant his entire debt.
This servant then went out and found a fellow-servant who owed him a much smaller debt of 100 pence. He grabbed the fellow-servant by the throat and demanded, “Pay me that thou owest.” His fellow-servant fell down at his feet, begging him to have patience and saying he would repay it all, but the unjust servant refused and had the man thrown into prison. (See Matthew 18:21–35.)
Notice that neither servant pleaded for mercy. They both asked for patience, assuming that they could repay the debt if they had more time. The second servant had a small debt, which easily could have been repaid, but the debt of the first servant was so huge that there was no humanly possible way that he could ever pay it back.
It is only as we recognize the utter impossibility of paying our huge debt to God and plead for His mercy that we can show mercy to others.
There are several important insights in this account that can be applied to forgiving our offenders. First of all, both men were fellow-servants to the king. In the same way, all believers are co-laborers with Christ in God’s kingdom.
Secondly, the servant was supposed to be making wise investments for the king as a good steward of the king’s assets, not using them for his own personal gain. It is likely that the loan made to the fellow-servant came from funds that were entrusted to him by the king. Since the king forgave the entire amount owed to him by the first servant, this also would have included the money that was loaned to the second servant. Thus, he had no right to demand it.
Finally, by throwing his fellow-servant in prison, he was doing further damage to the interests of the king by incapacitating one of the king’s other workers. No wonder the king called him a wicked servant and severely punished him for his lack of forgiveness by turning him over to the tormentors “till he should pay all that was due.”
We imprison ourselves through unforgiveness and will suffer at the hands of “tormentors” until we fully forgive our offenders.
Since God says that He will deal with every person who refuses to forgive in the same way that the king dealt with the wicked servant, we can expect that God will allow “tormentors” in our lives if we fail to forgive. (See Matthew 18:35.) Therefore, the key to forgiving others is to focus on our huge debt of sin that God has forgiven and generously extend that same forgiveness to others.
Through Christ our Lord,
Bill Gothard
June 3, 2007 at 9:15 am |
Toward the beginning of Paul’s ministry, he had to escape from would-be killers by being let down over the city wall. He ended his ministry by rejecting the appeals of those who warned of his death and going to Rome, where he was beheaded.
During his ministry, he responded to a multitude of opponents in various ways. He debated with the religious leaders in the synagogues, reasoned with the philosophers on Mars Hill, challenged his opponents in the church, and praised God for other critics who were at least preaching the Gospel.
In the same way that wars are won by different strategies, so we must use different responses for those who oppose us.
Jesus laid the foundation for recognizing different types of offenders and responding to them in different ways when He said, “… Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). Paul presented a parallel idea when he said, “… Being reviled, we bless; being persecuted, we suffer it: being defamed, we entreat” (I Corinthians 4:12–13).
As we obey the command to love our enemies, it is important to recognize three types of enemies and different ways to respond to them, identified by Jesus and Paul.
1. Those who curse and revile us: we bless.
Jesus gave an example of this type of attack when He said, “… If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub [Satan], how much more shall they call them of his household?” (Matthew 10:25). He went on to explain why those who revile need to be blessed with repentance for sin and God’s mercies upon them for salvation: “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known” (Matthew 10:26). By blessing them we overcome evil with good (see Romans 12:21).
2. Those who hate and persecute us: we endure it and return good for evil.
This reaction of hatred is because of a relationship with the Lord and the work of His kingdom. Jesus stated, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mark 13:13). Just as Jesus did good to those who hated Him and conquered by love, so we are to follow in His steps. In fact, Jesus did this for each of us. “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8).
3. Those who defame and despitefully use us: we entreat and pray for.
When Paul’s character was defamed by false accusations, he responded to the challenge by giving his credentials and defending his Godly actions (see II Corinthians 11:22–31). Jesus also responded to those who tried to defame Him by appealing to their consciences with the truth (see John 8:41–47).
In your journal this week, write down the names of individuals whom God has brought to your mind to forgive. Then, as you apply the insights from this command, write out the results, especially how God heals any emotional wounds and replaces them with genuine love for your offenders.
Through Christ our Lord,
Bill Gothard