SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/19/2023 11:16 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3 “Intro
to ‘Learning to Forgive’”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
18:21-35
Message of the verses: “21 Then Peter came
up and said to him, "Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I
forgive him? As many as seven times?" 22 Jesus said to him, "I do not
say to you seven times, but seventy times seven. 23 “Therefore the kingdom of
heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his
servants. 24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten
thousand talents. 25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be
sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and
I will pay you everything.’ 27 And out of pity for him, the master of that
servant released him and forgave him the debt. 28 But when that same servant
went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii,
and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ 29 So his
fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I
will pay you.’ 30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay
the debt. 31 When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were
greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had
taken place. 32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked
servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 And should
not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And
in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his
debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not
forgive your brother from your heart.’”
Let us briefly consider forgiveness from another
direction, and that is that Christians need to forgive because they themselves
need forgiveness. We have mentioned
since we began looking at chapter 18 of Matthew’s gospel that Jesus set a
little child on his lap at the beginning of this chapter and this indicated
that we are all children, and so like all children, are ignorant, weak,
selfish, disobedient, and regularly in need of forgiveness, both from God and
from each other. Conclusion: Forgiving
is a give-and-take issue of life. As
mentioned before forgiveness is not easy to do because of living in the flesh. Think a minute about Adam and Eve when God
came to talk to them about the very first sin by humans in the universe, and
that was disobeying God by eating the forbidden fruit. What happened when God confronted them? The blame game began as Adam blamed Eve, and
Eve blamed the serpent, and as I have heard the serpent did not have a leg to
stand on. Mankind has been blaming their
sin on others ever since. I wonder if it
had made a difference if Adam would had said to the Lord, “Yes Lord I have
sinned and I ask you to forgive me and also my wife for the sin we committed
against you.” All sin is against God!
As
we think about forgiveness we can conclude that forgiveness is therefore the
key to spiritual unity in the church, and the reason is because it is the key
to love and the key to all meaningful relationships. It is only forgiveness that can break down
the barriers that sin continually and inevitably erects between people, and
that certainly includes God’s people.
Proverbs 19:11 tells us “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and
it is his glory to
overlook a transgression.” Think
about that for a moment “it is his glory to over look a transgression.” This shows us that Christians are at their
best when they are forgiving. It is
because believers have been forgiven so much by God, they, of all people,
should be the most forgiving of others, especially of fellow believers. Let us look at Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one
another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has
forgiven you.” This verse shows us that
Christians are most like the Lord when they forgive. Paul speaks this same truth in Col. 3:13 “bearing
with one another, and
forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you,
so also should you.”
Now as I usually do I want to quote John MacArthur’s
last paragraph from his introduction to help us know where we are going as we
continue in this section.
“In
this closing part of His teaching about believers as children (Matt. 18), Jesus gives a powerful sobering declaration
of the need for believers to be forgiving. Just as a person enters and is considered
great in the kingdom only by becoming a like a little child (vv. 3-4) and, once
in the kingdom, is to be protected like a little child (vv. 5-9), cared for
like a little child (vv. 10-14), and disciplined like a little child (vv.
15-20), so also, Jesus now says, must be forgiven like a little child. In verses 21-35 we first see Peter’s inquiry
about forgiveness and then Jesus’ teaching about the extent of God’s
forgiveness of believers and a negative example of their duty to forgive each
other.”
All
I can say is buckle up for this is going to be a mind changing experience as we
look at these verses in the last part of Matthew 18.
Spiritual meaning for my life today: It should be the desire of all believers to
be more like their Lord, and forgiveness is a key to making this happening.
My Steps of Faith for Today: I trust that
the Holy Spirit will change my heart so that I will be a more forgiving
believer.
1/19/2023 11:57 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment