There are several things that can be stated about the church with certainty. She is Christ’s beloved. He died on the cross to save her. Her eternity is secured in heaven. The gates of hell will not prevail against her.
All of these are true. Yet there is one more thing I can guarantee if you are a part of the church. You will get hurt. I don’t say this because I am cold hearted or we are a mean bunch of people. I say that because we are all sinners. Sinful people do sinful things. Where there is sin, people get hurt.
This is what makes the one another commands so challenging. Calls to love one another, live in harmony with one another, encourage one another, and serve one another sound all warm and fuzzy, especially in a fairy tale sort of way. The only problem is we have to do all this one anothering with sinful people. This is what makes the call in Colossians 3:13 to forgive one another so essential. We will never be able to do any of the other “one anothers” if we can’t also forgive one another.
However, this may be the hardest one another of them all. It’s not that we don’t like the idea of forgiveness. We love it when it comes to our own wrongs. When others have wronged us, however, then we’re not the biggest fans of forgiveness.
Join us Sunday as we look at what forgiveness means.