Bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
Into the Text
Have you ever been deeply hurt by somebody? Maybe friends whom you trusted betrayed you or turned their backs on you?
All of us will have complaints against others. We have all been hurt, misunderstood, and treated badly. Yet, God doesn’t allow us to hold any grudges. He wants us to forgive wholeheartedly. Can you do it?
Corrie Ten Boom was a Dutch Christian who hid Jews from the Nazis during the Second World War. Someone betrayed her family. They were imprisoned, and Corrie and her sister, Betsie, were sent to a German concentration camp. They endured unimaginable sufferings before Betsie died in the camp. Corrie was eventually released. After the war ended, she started to share her story.
One time, when she was speaking in Germany, a man approached her. “Miss Ten Boom,” he said, “do you remember me?” Corrie immediately recognized him. He had been one of the most cruel guards at the concentration camp. He went on: “I have become a Christian. Now I would like to ask you, Miss Ten Boom, will you forgive me?”
Corrie recalls, “I could not forgive him. I thought of the suffering of my dying sister…Yet, Jesus had said that when we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us either. But I could not! I could only hate him! And then, I remembered Romans 5:5: ‘the love of God has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.’ And I said…’Thank you, Father, because your love is stronger than my hatred!’ In that same moment, I was free, and I could forgive. It was as if God’s love streamed through my arms as I shook hands with that man.”
Can you forgive? No. Neither can I. But He can!
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I need and want to forgive, but I can’t. Please help me. Amen.