We must forgive as Christ has forgiven us.
We tend to judge and condemn more for particularly heinous sins. What we forget in these circumstances is that God views all sin the same. None of us are perfect and we all need to be forgiven. Humans put levels of sin on an offense. You can’t go in front of God as a sinner of any kind — unless you are covered by the blood of Christ.
We must hate all sin, not just the big stuff, and we are guilty of some kind of sin. This might seem harsh, but there is a distinction. We should hate the sin, not the sinner. Some will ask – “How do I do that?”
I think this is what Christ meant when he said to love your neighbor as yourself.
People within the church forget this and can be harsh and unforgiving in their judgements. By the same token – people outside of the church can be harsh and unforgiving of the church when they see how sinners are treated. BOTH are at fault.
- The church is at fault for not forgiving or not working with the sinner giving them a chance to repent and work through the consequences of their choices.
- The people outside of the church are also at fault because they categorize the sin. Usually when they view the church’s actions as ‘too harsh’ on people who have sinned, as in the case of adultery, I would argue that these same people will call for the church to practically execute people within the church who have been found guilty of stealing money.
Sin is sin. Both are abhorrent acts against God. Both have consequences, and they are very different. But both can be forgiven.
You can much more easily change yourself than others. REMOVE the plank from your own eye first. Sometimes the “plank” is something you don’t consider to be sinful, or it’s only a small sin. “Well at least I’m not like him! I only tell an occasional white lie. At least I didn’t cheat on my spouse.”
In areas where you are already “perfect”, and someone else is sinning, you can still always FORGIVE. Jesus was perfect – he could have judged but instead he forgave.
“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”
2 Corinthians 12:9-10
This line in particular: “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” requires more examination. God is saying that we are inherently weak because of our flawed, sinful nature. Guess who else is weak? People who sin against us. Friends. Family. Politicians. Celebrities. Everyone else on the planet. We need to show that same grace to others and let them know that there is hope because we serve a God who has shown us grace. To win more people to Christ, we need show people more of what we are for – not what we are against. We are ‘pro-life’ right? We must also be ‘pro-grace’. I don’t use this to refer to abortion here – I mean it in the sense of ‘eternal life’ and not having our souls destroyed. This is what leads to eternal life. Matthew 6:14 sums it up: “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”
Love God with all your soul and heart and mind. Part of that is doing what God commands and what God does. He commands us to forgive because we have been forgiven. He DID forgive us while enduring great pain and suffering by sacrificing His Son. We too must forgive, even when it is painful, even when it seems unjust.