ODJ: forgiveness
Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others (v.13).
READ: Colossians 3:12-17
We were shocked when a woman associated with a dark time in our past had the nerve to show up at a family reunion. She had broken up my father’s family when he was a young boy, and despite our attempts at reconciliation she had never confessed and asked forgiveness for the mess she had made. Yet here she was, butting in on our reunion and demanding to be treated like family!
We weren’t sure how to respond. Go too light—say “no problem” and warmly welcome her—and we risked trivializing her offense. Go too dark—nurse our grudge and fantasize about revenge—and we risked denying the grace that God has extended to us. We wondered what forgiveness meant in this situation (Colossians 3:13).
Here‘s what we realized: The goal of forgiveness is reconciliation. While not all broken relationships can be repaired in this life—for example, battered spouses and children must be protected from their abusers—we must work toward reconciliation between the offender and his victim.
This reconciliation requires that the offender repent, ask forgiveness, and, when appropriate, make restitution. For her part, the victim must release the offender from the need to pay for his sin. She chooses to absorb the cost herself and, rather than plot revenge, commits to love and seek his best.
This can be excruciatingly difficult. Many journeys of forgiveness are too arduous to complete on the spot. But we who have been forgiven by God must commit to forgiving others, and so, after catching our breath, we brace for another push in their direction (v.12).
C. S. Lewis wrote to a friend: “Last week, while at prayer, I suddenly discovered—or felt as if I did—that I had really forgiven someone I had been trying to forgive for over 30 years. Trying, and praying that I might.”
Sometimes the breakthrough comes unexpectedly. —Mike Wittmer
How are you tempted to cut corners or ignore God’s standards for right and wrong? How can you avoid double-dealing with the Holy Spirit?
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Loading ...ODB: the thinking Christian
September 17, 2009
READ: 2 Cor. 10:1-11
Casting down arguments and . . . bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. —2 Corinthians 10:5
David McCullough’s biography of John Adams, one of America’s founding fathers and early presidents, describes him as “both a devout Christian and an independent thinker, and he saw no conflict in that.” I am struck by that statement, for it carries a note of surprise, suggesting that Christians are somehow naïve or unenlightened, and that the idea of a “thinking Christian” is a contradiction.
Nothing could be further from the truth. One of the great benefits of salvation is that it causes the believer’s mind to be guarded by the peace of God (Phil. 4:7), which can foster clear thinking, discernment, and wisdom. Paul described this in his second letter to Corinth when he wrote that in Christ we are equipped for “casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Cor. 10:5).
To sift through an argument wisely, to embrace the clarity of the knowledge of God, and to align our thinking with the mind of Christ are valuable skills when living in a world lacking in discernment. These skills enable us to use our minds to represent Christ. Every Christian should be a thinking Christian. Are you? — Bill Crowder
Faith was never intended as a substitute for intelligence.
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