Forgiving one another is a great quality of Christian living.
And forgive us our sins, just as we have forgiven those who have sinned against us. … “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins (Matthew 6:12, 14-15 NLT).
• God's forgiveness requires your forgiving others. An unforgiving attitude deprives you from receiving God's forgiveness (see Matthew 18:21-35; Colossians 3:13).
Restoration is our duty
Helping one another to overcome weaknesses and sins is our basic duty.
Dear brothers and sisters, if another Christian is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself. Share each other's troubles and problems, and in this way obey the law of Christ. If you think you are too important to help someone in need, you are only fooling yourself. You are really a nobody (Galatians 6:1-3 NLT).
• Your chief duty when seeing or knowing a member sinning is to restore him back to living right before God and before people. You are rescuing the member from the devil's attacks (see also 1 Peter 5:8; John 10:10a).
• Restoration must be done ‘gently and humbly', not in anger and pride. Anger and self-righteousness drives you to punish and despise but compassion motivates you to put the person out of sins.
• ‘Be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself'. The devil tempts anybody to let loose his sinful nature.
• Sins put people into ‘troubles and problems'. Lovingly help the person to get out of his mess is ‘obeying the law of Christ'.
• Every Christian is a forgiven sinner. It is foolish to ‘think you are too important to help someone in need' of forgiveness and restoration.
Your focus is restoring a person back to living right before God and people, not looking down at him.
If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the fault. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. If that person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. If the church decides you are right, but the other person won't accept it, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector (Matthew 18:15-17 NIV).
• Keep the matter confidential when he confesses his sin. If you do not succeed, go with two or three mature Christians to restore him back to living right before God.
• Leave him to the conviction of the Holy Spirit and the chastisement of God, if the person refuses to repent (see also John 16:8; Hebrews 12:5-6). Give the person intercessory covering to reach repentance and transformation.
Now it is time to forgive him and comfort him. Otherwise he may become so discouraged that he won't be able to recover. Now show him that you still love him. … When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive him (for whatever is to be forgiven), I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit, so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes (2 Corinthians 2:7-8, 10-11 NLT).
• Watch the person so that he does not ‘become so discouraged that he won't be able to recover'. As soon as the person realizes his sin, forgive him. ‘Assure him of your love' and restore him back to the church.
My brothers and sisters, if one of you wanders away from the truth, and someone helps that person come back, remember this: Anyone who brings a sinner back from the wrong way will save that sinner's soul from death and will cause many sins to be forgiven (James 5:19-20 NCV).
• Successfully restoring a person from sin is preventing him from being dragged into more sins, which may eventually ruin him eternally. Sin has the nature to plunge a person into many other sins to ruin him eternally.
And the prayer that is said with faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will heal that person. And if the person has sinned, the sins will be forgiven. Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so God can heal you. When a believing person prays, great things happen (James 5:15-16 NCV).
• ‘Confess your sins to each other', especially to a leader who is taking care of you spiritually, is your accountability to God. Forgiveness is an aspect of the authority of spiritual leaders (see also John 20:23).
• The prayer of faith of a spiritual leader (see also verse 14) ministers forgiveness and healing. Hence, ‘great things happen' again to your life and ministry.
The law of sowing and reaping
All actions, good or bad, are subjected to the law of sowing and reaping.
Stop judging others, and you will not be judged. Stop criticizing others, or it will all come back on you. If you forgive others, you will be forgiven. If you give, you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full measure, pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, and running over. Whatever measure you use in giving—large or small—it will be used to measure what is given back to you (Luke 6:37-38 NLT).
• Judgmental or critical attitude tends to invite more critical attitudes coming against you.
“Don't judge other people, or you will be judged. You will be judged in the same way that you judge others, and the amount you give to others will be given to you. “Why do you notice the little piece of dust in your friend's eye, but you don't notice the big piece of wood in your own eye? How can you say to your friend, ‘Let me take that little piece of dust out of your eye'? Look at yourself! You still have that big piece of wood in your own eye. You hypocrite! First, take the wood out of your own eye. Then you will see clearly to take the dust out of your friend's eye (Matthew 7:1-5 NCV).
• Judging with prejudice will put you under the judgement of prejudice.
• Human behavior has this tendency of resenting little flaws in others' life while you have the same weaknesses and dislike them. It is called the ‘projection of guilt'.
• You must first acknowledge your weaknesses and correct the ‘projection of guilt' before you can effectively help others to overcome theirs. Resentment makes you feel self-righteous and closes up your heart towards the person who needs help.
An unforgiving and resentful attitude damages your Christian living.
Jesus answered, “Have faith in God. I tell you the truth, you can say to this mountain, ‘Go, fall into the sea.' And if you have no doubts in your mind and believe that what you say will happen, God will do it for you. So I tell you to believe that you have received the things you ask for in prayer, and God will give them to you. When you are praying, if you are angry with someone, forgive him so that your Father in heaven will also forgive your sins.” (Mark 11:22-25 NCV).
• A forgiving heart is needed in exercising mountain-moving faith.
Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift (Matthew 5:23-24 NKJV).
• A forgiving heart is needed in receiving the many fold returns to your offerings.
Forgiveness is from the heart
Have love in your heart, you will be able to forgive and minister restoration.
God has chosen you and made you his holy people. He loves you. So always do these things: Show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle, and patient. Get along with each other, and forgive each other. If someone does wrong to you, forgive that person because the Lord forgave you (Colossians 3:12-13 NCV).
• Because God loves you, has chosen and forgiven you, you always ‘show mercy to others, be kind, humble, gentle, and patient'.
• To ‘get along with each other' involves ‘forgiving each other' lovingly.
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of malicious behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32 NLT).
• Stop speaking badly about the person you want to restore. Remove ‘all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, slander, and all types of malicious behavior'. Then, ‘be kind' and ‘tenderhearted', forgive him and begin to minister restoration.
Aim to put the person on the process of reaching true repentance.
Jesus said to his followers, “Things that cause people to sin will happen, but how terrible for the person who causes them to happen! It would be better for you to be thrown into the sea with a large stone around your neck than to cause one of these little ones to sin. So be careful! “If another follower sins, warn him, and if he is sorry and stops sinning, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in one day and says that he is sorry each time, forgive him.” (Luke 17:1-4 NCV).
• Causing temptations (by communication, dressing, body movement, and activities) is a serious sin. Rather, motivate people to live godly and righteous living.
• One who participates in sinning together should not just blame the tempter but be responsible to repent on his own.
• When a fellow believer sins, especially against you, warn him to stop. Each time he repents before you, forgive him. Make sure he knows repentance is a process of conviction, contrition, confession, restoration, and transformation. Go through with him the six lessons of Spiritual Freedom in the Discipleship Program (Ministry 103 Part 2). Your goal is helping him to reach transformation!
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times? ” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven ” (Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV).
• ‘Seven' signifies many and ‘seventy times seven' means always. Forgive always, each time when a person seeks your forgiveness. But forgiveness is not to be abused. It is not an allowance for a person to keep sinning and come back to say sorry. Rather, it is meant for transformation to reach full effect.
• Not showing the fruit of repentance is very disappointing. It damages people's trust on you. |