Forgiving One Another

Andrew Southwick

One Another Community • Sermon • Submitted 6 years ago

Colossians 3:12–16

Forgiveness

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We continue in our One Another series today and we are going to land on the subject of forgiveness.

We’ve talked about forgiveness before, in fact, I’ve preached about forgiveness right here at Bristol in the Because You Asked series a few months ago.

A few months ago, we talked about what forgiveness is not, and what forgiveness is.

We talked about how forgiveness is not letting someone get away it.

Forgiveness is not forgetting.

Forgiveness is not automatic reconciliation.

And you can go back and listen to the rest of that message if you like.

Today, we are going to zero in on

how we are to forgive one another

why forgiveness is so critical that we are commanded to forgive one another.

And we are going to do that by looking at forgiveness in two ways:

Offering forgiveness

Receiving forgiveness

So let’s pray together as we come to God’s Word this morning.

Colossians 3:12–16 ESV

12 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, 13 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. 14 And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. 15 And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.

Paul, in writing to the church at Colossae, is telling them, now that you are saved, put on the clothes of salvation.

Just like when we are born, the first thing that happens is we are cleaned off and put in a blanket.

Well, for the Christian, after we are born again, we are commanded to put on the clothes of salvation, and Paul illustrates those clothes in this text.

The Clothes of Salvation

Compassion - Tenderness for those who are suffering

Kindness - A disposition of graciousness

Humility - A posture of service and sacrifice toward one another

Meekness - Considering the rights and feelings of others

Patience - Self-restraint that enables one to withstand injury and insult without malicious retaliation

Next, Paul expands the clothing of patience by adding these attitudes and actions:

Bear with one another.

If we have to bear something, its usually not pleasant. We can become impatient. We often do. Bearing each other’s burdens, bearing each other’s foolish choices, bearing each other’s hurts. In other words, we are to put up with things that we dislike in others sometimes for the sake of the Gospel and for the sake of God’s children. These are manifestations of the clothing of patience.

Forgive one another.

And then, Paul even gives a directive command as to how we are to forgive in that we are to forgive each other as Christ as forgiven us.

Doesn’t that sound familiar?

We read a few weeks ago that we are to love each other as Christ loved us, and now we read we are to forgive each other as Christ has forgiven us.

This is where we are going to camp out for this morning, but briefly, I want to give you the overview of the rest of the text that we read, and then we will come back to the command to forgive each other.

In verse 14, Paul illustrates the final piece of clothing, which is

love

Every virtue, or clothing, that Paul wrote are, at their utmost, a manifestation of love. So this is why Paul says that love is the most important piece of clothing because without it, the other virtues do not happen.

As Paul continues in verses 15 and 16, Paul tells the church to

let the peace of God rule in their hearts

let the word of Christ dwell in you richly

There’s a whole lot that we can take away from these verses, but for today, we will simply see this:

If the peace of God rules in our hearts, and the word of Christ dwells richly in us, then what pours out of us will demonstrate God’s love for us, and our love for each other.

Now, let’s get back to forgiveness.

Offering Forgiveness

In the last message I preached here at Valley Bristol we talked about the things that keep us from offering forgiveness in the first place.

And the primary obstacle is a misunderstanding of what forgiveness is.

Again, we’ve covered that aspect before so I won’t spend too much time on that particular part today.

So let’s look at the chief commanding verse:

Colossians 3:13 ESV

13 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.

Forgive one another as the Lord has forgiven you.

What does that mean?

Forgiving as the Lord forgave us means that forgiveness is offered before an apology is heard.

Forgiveness needs to be our 2nd nature response for when we are hurt/betrayed.

Garden of Eden. Letter to JD. (examples)

Forgiving as the Lord forgave us is acknowledging that God’s justice is better than ours.

If the price that Jesus paid on the cross for your sins was enough to accomplish salvation and life for you, why then isn’t it also enough for the person who wronged you?

How confusing it must be before a lost and dying world when they look at the church and see that God’s people are fighting amongst themselves, refusing to forgive, splitting up, and giving in.

You see, when we forgive as the Lord forgave us, we are demonstrating not only our love for others, but Christ’s love. In fact, I would suggest that when we forgive, we demonstrate the love of Christ to and for other, and when we refuse to forgive, we demonstrate our love for others. That is, our love apart from Christ.

Furthermore, we are acknowledging that Christ’s sacrifice really was enough, not just satisfy justice for our own sin, but for the sins of all those who believe in Jesus.

There’s a misunderstanding about forgiveness that says that forgiveness is “letting go.”

Doesn’t that sound sweet?

We are not randomly letting go, we are intentionally laying our hurt at the feet of Jesus and saying Lord, I don’t want to carry this anymore. Your justice is enough. I surrender my grudge to You so that I might experience Your Peace.

God’s justice brings God’s peace

Man’s justice brings only death

Just look out the window, and you’ll see this play out before your eyes.

And sadly, sometimes we don’t even have to look out the window because we can watch our own church families get swallowed up into a mess a bitterness and hatred.

Receiving Forgiveness

The command of offering forgiveness to your fellow believers (yes, to everyone, but in this context, we are talking about forgiveness among the same body of believers) assumes that such an offer will be received.

Moreover, the command also implies that the way to bring about peace among feuding believers is through forgiveness.

Which follows the nature of God perfectly, since the way to have peace with God is also through His forgiveness.

Nonetheless, the hardest thing about receiving forgiveness is this:

Pride

It is our pride that leads us to hide from the forgiveness of Jesus, and it is our pride that rejects the forgiveness being offered by others.

Think about it.

If we are offering forgiveness before an apology is heard, as God has demonstrated, then we are, at the same time we are offering forgiveness, pointing out a potential sin in the life of another person, and again, keeping ourselves from the sin of bitterness, resentment, and hatred of one another.

And who among us likes to get those kinds of progress reports?

No one likes to have their blind spots pointed out to them, especially if its something we may have done wrong, or something we have done that has been received incorrectly as well. We all think we are basically fine and we all think that everybody always understands what we mean.

It is the offering of forgiveness that makes restoration possible, and it is the receiving of forgiveness that completes such a pursuit.

You know, if you look at the fruit of the Spirit in Galatians chapter 5, you’ll find that first on the list and chief among the fruits is love.

If you look back at , you’ll see that love is the most important piece of salvation clothing to put on because it leads to everything else.

In the Corinthians, we read that the greatest virtue is love, even though hope and faith remain.

And of course the greatest commandment is centered on our love for God and each other.

But you know what isn’t mentioned in lists and commands like those?

Pride.

Forgiveness is not expression of our pride, its an expression of God’s love.

We forgive because He forgave first, even all the way back to the Garden of Eden.

And so we are to forgive as Jesus has forgiven us.

I’d like to call the ushers forward at this time to distribute the communion elements.

Practical Apps

To forgive like the Lord I need to:

Let God bring His justice into the situation in His time

Proverbs 21:2 ESV

2 Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the Lord weighs the heart.

Let God keep my pain and not try to take it back from Him

Romans 12:19 ESV

19 Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.”

Let God bring me His Peace His Way

Romans 14:19 ESV

19 So then let us pursue what makes for peace and for mutual upbuilding.

As we come to communion, we can see the answer to the last question that we are addressing today, which is,

Why is forgiveness so critical that it is a command?

Because without forgiveness there is no life

Jesus gave life to you and me through forgiveness, which as we learned earlier, is an expression of His love.

And He commands us to forgive each other, because if we do not, we will only seek each other’s misery. Unforgiveness and the bitterness and contempt that it inspires does not look to the interests of others, and it has no desire to encourage, or bear with one another.

And so we come to communion.

Here Jesus demonstrates symbolically His offer of forgiveness that would accomplish salvation.

Communion

Bring band up here.

God’s desire for His church is that we would be a forgiving people.

A people who love each other enough to forgive each other, and who are humble enough to receive forgiveness too.

You know, its often said that salvation is a free gift from God. And I get why people say that. They’re trying to say that we don’t do anything to earn, or otherwise pay for, salvation.

But the truth is that salvation is not a free gift.

The forgiveness of sin that accomplished salvation on our behalf cost Jesus tremendously. It cost His very life.

Salvation, then, is not a free gift from God, but a gift that God offers freely to all who will receive it.

And by receiving the salvation of Jesus Christ, you are receiving forgiveness of sin, which is a forgiveness that only Jesus can offer, and only Jesus can give.

And by forgiving each other, and receiving forgiveness from each other, you are allowing God’s peace to rule amongst us and in our hearts.

And yes, forgiveness is costly. But that should only go to prove how valuable we are to God, and how valuably we are to treat each other.

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