Forgive one another


Colossians 3:13 (NIV)
“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

Have you ever held a grudge? Has someone held a grudge against you? Maybe you avoid that person, or the sight of them makes you angry, or you treat them poorly. We live in a world that is full of sin and an ever growing population of imperfect humans. You are bound to “wrong”/offend someone, just as others are bound to offend you. Believe it or not this can and does happen in church as well.

We are called here to bear one another, or in other words tolerate and endure one another. We are human, we are bound to get annoyed by others. There will be some people that we really like to be around, and others that we prefer to not be around. We are called here to be tolerant to those brothers or sisters in Christ that we may not enjoy being around. We are to show them love as we are taught in John 13:34.

Then we are called to forgive others if we have a grievance against them. A grievance is not just a problem with someone, it is also any complaint you have, and any criticism that you may have. None of us are righteous as stated in Romans 3:10. We all have shortcomings as we see in Romans 3:23. So if we look close enough at anyone there will be room for criticism and complaints. We tend to let these grievances offend us and fester inside of us. Yet we are called to forgive as Christ. Christ forgives all of the shortcomings of humanity. He understands that we are imperfect and he sacrificed himself to bridge a gap that we could not.

Challenge: If you find yourself holding a grudge against someone, forgive them. If you know that you have offended someone, ask them for forgiveness.

“If you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” Romans 10:9 (NIV)


For more about handling a brother or sister in Christ sinning against you reference Matthew 18:15-17

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