More Focus On Forgiveness Series

More Focus on Forgiveness

Ephesians 4:29-32

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The Book of Ephesians

Grayson Baptist Church - January 3, 2016

(Revised May 18, 2024)

BACKGROUND:

*How should we Christians treat one another? How does God want us to treat each other? The fact is that God has a giant interest in how we treat each other. And we know this is true, because the Bible talks about this over 60 times in the New Testament. Four of those times are here in Ephesians 4.

-In vs. 2, we are to be "bearing with one another in love."

-In vs. 25, "we are members of one another." In other words, we belong to one another in the spiritual Body of Jesus Christ.

-And in vs. 32, we are to be "kind to one another," and "forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you."

*The heart and soul of all these "one another" Scriptures is God's agape love. He wants us to love one another the same way that God loves us. And it is amazing for me to realize that God talks about us loving one another, not 2 or 3 times, but 16 different times in the New Testament.

*Beginning on the night before the cross, in John 13:34 Jesus told His disciples, "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another."

*On that same night in John 15:12-14 Jesus said, "This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for his friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." Then again in John 15:17 Jesus said, "These things I command you, that you love one another."

*Here are several more examples. In Romans 13:8 Paul said, "Owe no one anything except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law."

*In 1 Thessalonians 4:9-10, Paul said, "But concerning brotherly love you have no need that I should write to you, for you yourselves are taught by God to love one another; and indeed you do so toward all the brethren who are in all Macedonia. But we urge you, brethren, that you increase more and more."

*And in 1 Peter 1:22-23, the Apostle Peter told Christians, "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever."

*The essential foundation for our relationships as Christians is God's kind of love for us. And an essential dimension of that love is forgiveness. God wants us to forgive other people, but the main focus today is forgiving one another in the Body of Christ. Please think about this as we read Ephesians 4:29-32.

MESSAGE:

*Have you ever had a problem forgiving someone? We get it naturally. We were all born with a selfish, sinful nature that wants what we want, when we want it.

*Jeff Strite told about a little girl who spent the whole day fighting with her sister. And that evening as they got ready for bed, they were still mad at each other. As usual, they knelt beside their beds for their prayers. And the 8-year-old began to pray, "Dear God, Please, bless Daddy and Mommy. Bless our cat and our dog." Then she stopped.

*Mom gently prodded, "Didn't you forget somebody?" She glared across the bed at her 6-year-old sister, then said, "And, oh yes... -- God bless my ex-sister." (1)

*We can be like that when we refuse to forgive one another. It's because we were born with a selfish, sinful nature. But Christians, we are born again by the Holy Spirit of God! We were born again with the nature of Jesus Christ, so we are surely able to forgive just as Jesus has forgiven us, and God commands us to forgive.

*But what is forgiveness? James Merritt tells us that biblical forgiveness literally means "to let go" or "to send away." And Merritt said, "Forgiveness takes place when we release to the Lord any bitterness that we feel we have a right to have toward someone else. Forgiveness is the willingness to put both the offender and the offense into God's hands, and let Him take care of the matter.

*Dr. Archibald Hart defined forgiveness as 'giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.' And James Merritt wisely noted that "forgiveness is the only cure for the emotional cancer of bitterness." (2)

*Christians: God commands us to forgive other people. And today's Scripture helps us see why.