Have you ever been angry or upset with someone because they hurt someone you knew? They didn’t hurt you directly, but you were hurt all the same. Later, the person they hurt makes up with them, forgives them. Are you still upset?
Sometimes, it is almost harder to forgive that person because you weren’t directly involved in the first place. You still harbor resentment toward them.
Read what the Apostle Paul has to say about that kind of a situation:
Now whom you forgive anything, I also forgive. For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, 11 lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. 2 Corinthians 2:10 - 11 (NKJV)
The implication is that if we do not forgive that person that our friend has forgiven, Satan may take advantage of us. How can he do that? Anytime we disobey something that God desires, we create an opportunity for Satan to come in and say, like he did to Eve in the garden, “God didn’t really mean that.” Then doubt creeps in and we start to question God’s Word.
In the case of the Corinthians, Paul had told them to forgive the man that had sinned, invite him back into the fellowship and demonstrate to him that they still loved him. Paul forgave him too.
Why does he say “for your sakes in the presence of Christ?” Think of it like this, If you knew that Jesus Christ was in the room, you would be on your best behavior and couldn’t possibly lie. You would tell the absolute truth in the presence of Christ. Paul’s forgiveness was real, not faked.
We too, if we have accepted Christ as our Savior, are constantly in the presence of Christ because His Spirit lives in us. We need to act in that same manner of truthfulness and sincerity, forgiving those whom our brothers and sisters in Christ have forgiven. After all there’s only One Body of Christ. We are called to unity, not just in some things, but in all things. We are One in Jesus our Savior.
SEEK FIRST THE
