Colossians 3:13

Colossians chapter 3, verses 1214. Put on therefore as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, forbearing one another, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any, even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. May God bless to us, the reading of His Holy and Sacred Word. Many years ago, the Duke of Arlau, who was a, which is a county on the west coast of Scotland, was captured during Scotland’s rebellion against England. And the Duke was brought before James II, the King of England at the time. And the king said unto him, you know that it’s in my power to pardon you. To which the prisoner responded, it may be in your power, but it’s not in your nature. And he was immediately executed by the king. There are many people. who have the ability to forgive, but it’s not in their nature to do so. That, however, isn’t true of a believer, because unlike others around you, you have a new nature. You, being conformed to the image of Christ, who is known to forgive those who were his enemies, or to do likewise, as our text reminds us, as our focus is on verse 13, the same thing, morning. And therefore, Christians ought to be the most forgiving people in all the world. Sadly, you can be reluctant to forgive others. And so we have the need for this exhortation here in verse 13. I want to talk about the topic of forgiveness this morning. Let me begin by starting with this thought. Let’s talk about your necessary attitude. for granting forgiveness, forbearing one another. Forbearing one another. What is the meaning of forbearance? The word forbear here, an echo in the Greek, means to hold up or to bear with or to endure something. It implies a holding back, a delay in the end up. execution of something, a suspension, and expressing wrath. Do you remember how the two angels were set by God to destroy Sodom? They waited, the Bible says, while lot lingered, before pouring out judgment on the city of Sodom. They held back God’s wrath. They held back God’s wrath. They showed forbearance until they could get, you know, hustle lot out of the city. Think of a horse that wants to run and the rider is pulling back on the reins. He’s holding it back. He’s keeping it from going full tilt. So forbearance means, forbearance means you bear with those who wrong you in some fashion. you hold back inflicting revenge or you bear with someone’s weaknesses, perhaps which are irritating to you. Now the need for forbearance, forbearing one another implies that this is the demanded duty of everyone who belongs to the Church of Christ. This is not something just for the elders of the church. This is something for everyone. every member of the church, from the greatest to the least. The rich are to be forbearing of the poor. The poor are the be forbearing of the rich. The elderly are to show forbearance to those who are younger, who act at times unwisely. Do not have your experience. Who do not have your knowledge. The younger need to bear with the lack of flexibility and thinking. because the older people are set in their ways and they’re maybe slow to act. At times you may perceive things differently than others and become upset. Someone might complain, you know, I was sick in the hospital and no one came to see me. Did you let anybody know that you were in the hospital? Well, no. Is any sick, the scripture says, let them call for the elders of the church. Did you call for the elders of the church? Well, no. So don’t think so harshly of your brothers and sisters in Christ when they’re ignorant of your situation. Be forbearing. No one spoke to me at church today. I’m quite upset about it. You feel neglected. I can understand that. Did you try to speak to anybody else at church today? Or do you just sit in your pew and not say anything? Or did you rush out the door as quickly as possible? We’re not very forbearing at times with others, but the scripture says, to be forbearing. Friends, we’re all like pebbles in the River of Life. We all start with some rough and some sharp edges. As we’re thrown along by the current, we bounce and rub up against other pebbles and rub each other smooth. The rough edges have to get taken off. It’s an inevitable process that we go through. And there’s some discomfort, perhaps, in being, going through this and sustaining this. but you should bear with it. It’s part of the great process that God has, by which we shall all come into proper shape. Be made suitable to live with one another for all eternity. So the need for forbearance is certainly something we should recognize. The benefit of forbearance. Your forbearance demonstrates love, which indicates then you are prepared to forgive this person. Scripture says charity suffereth long, it is not easily provoked, beareth all things. So it’s forbearing. Love is forbearing. Suppose someone treats you unfairly or speaks harshly about you, or displays a selfie, sure, some type of proud or envious spirit towards you. But out of love for your brother in Christ, or an enemy, as the case may be. You show forbearance and you don’t react to respond in kind to them. Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers a multitude of sins. Your handling of the situation gives a clear indication that you wish to be at peace, that you’re willing to be forgiving. And so that is an important aspect that you need to have in your life. Some things you can overlook. Other things you may have to point out to the person who has wronged you. But if you do it in love and meekness, then the door is open for forgiveness. For them to seek it, Robert Thornton related that his father and mother one day had one of their more memorable disagreements, as he put it. In the middle of it, his father jumped up grabbed some paper and some pencils and came over, put the paper down on the table between the two of them. There’s two sheets of paper there. He said, let’s make a list of everything we don’t like about each other. Well, Thornton’s mother started writing. Dad looked quite displeased, he said. But within a few minutes, he started writing something on his paper. When he stopped, mother wrote again. His father watched her. Every time she stopped, He would start writing and write something down. Finally they finished, and dad said, all right, now let’s exchange pieces of paper. When the mother looked at the dad’s paper, she immediately pleaded, please give my paper back to me. Because all down the page, all that he had written was, I love you, I love you, I love you, I love you. You. And this brought about, he said, an immediate reconciliation between the two of them. Love can overcome. Love is forbearing. We forbear with people out of love and overcome difficulties. So your forbearance demonstrates love, an indication you’re prepared to forgive. Your forbearance encourages your opponent to seek forgiveness. If we’re forbearing, often you find that it overcomes the most bitter opponent. If you simply retaliate in kind and seek revenge, then ultimately you’re not really doing your enemy any good. But if you look at David’s forbearance and respect to Paul, or, excuse me, Saul, when he was in the cave, remember, he doesn’t kill him. He just cuts off the corner of his garment. When Saul finds out that he had his life in David’s hands, and David did not kill him, it changed his old attitude. And he actually acknowledged that he had sinned and done evil, that David was righteous. And he was wrong in what he did because David showed forbearance. So you can overcome evil with good and shame your opponent, hopefully, so that they will ask for forgiveness, for wronging you. You know, to win a battle with human weapons, if you have a gun or a knife, that’s not such a great achievement. But to overcome your enemy by forbearance, now that is a great achievement, and that is what God tells us we should do. We all need to demonstrate much more forbearance. That is true. Your necessary attitude for granting forgiveness is to be forbearer. Secondly, your scriptural duty of granting forgiveness, he says here, and forgiving one another. If any man have a quarrel against any even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. Now your pattern for forgiveness here is Jesus Christ himself, and you’re not going to get a greater pattern than him. Even as Christ forgave you. How does Christ forgive? He readily forgives. Read through the Gospels. Notice how readily he forgives those who come to him. Does he know? not encourage transgressors to come to him? Come on to me, all you that labor and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Does he not say to the one man’s son be of good cheer, thy sins be forgiven thee? There’s no reluctance on God’s, on Christ’s part here. When do you ever read any hesitation in Christ to forgive anybody? Does he ever say, you know, I think I have to think about this? You never read him. anything like that. There’s never any reluctance. If we confess our sins, he’s faithful just to forgive us our sins. And it cleans us of all unrighteousness. C.H. Spurgeon once recounted a story that he had read about a missionary on a foreign field who had discovered a poor young girl who had fled home and ended up as a prostitute on the streets. And this girl was very hard and in her sin, but the missionary kept talking. to her and eventually he saw that her heart had softened some and he inquired about her family and he learned that she once enjoyed a very happy home life once she enjoyed her father’s love but as she she put it he would never look at me now I’m sure he never would I’m such a degraded creature that I could not venture near his door and the minister said have you never written him and she replied, no, I could not write to him. It would be of no use. I could not expect him to send me an answer and would break my heart to be refused. And the minister said, we will try and we will see what he will do. And so he did. And the next post brought back an answer. And the word immediately, immediate was written on the envelope. and the sum of the letter was, I’m ready to forgive you. And so she was soon taken to her father and embraced and all was forgiven. And it was a woman that was taken off the streets. And everything changed. He was ready to forgive her. This is the way Christ forgives. And so we have to be ready to forgive people. Even as Christ forgave you. Notice also, he completely forgives. He completely forgives. Look at Closcience chapter 2, verses 13 and 14. And you being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses, blotting out the handwriting in the ordinance is what was against us. Which was contrary to us, took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. Christ puts away the most horrible offenses, the most glaring transgressions in a moment. We don’t see Christ keeping here a black book on people where you have a permanent record that he’s going to somehow rather hold against us after we’ve come and asked for forgiveness. He doesn’t angrily hold a grudge against you because of what you’ve done. He forgives. He forgives. you. He blots it out. I will remember your sins no more is the promise of Scripture. You may remember your sins, and you may remember them with deep regret, but the Lord is never going to challenge you of those sins that he has cleansed you all because he’s buried them in the deepest sea. Is that how you forgive people? Can you forgive the most grievous sins against you? Or are you a person who says, I will never forgive that person for that. Do we hold unpardonable sins against people? When you do forgive someone, do you still hold a grudge against them? Do you keep a permanent record over that, hold over that person’s head from that day forth? The man was telling his wife about an argument he had with his, excuse me, he was telling his friend about an argument he had with his wife. He said, things got heated. And the man commented, oh, I hate it. Every time we get in an argument, she gets so historical. And the man and his friend said, you mean hysterical. No, I mean historical. She brings up everything in the past that I’ve ever done wrong and throws it in my face. This is a common occurrence. But it’s not a forgiveness such as Christ forgives. Even as he completely forgives. He continuously forgives. In the Old Testament, there were priests that were required to offer sacrifices daily. In the New Testament, we’re supposed to be praying, you know, forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors every day. Right? How many times must you plead for forgiveness for the same offense? Yourself. Doesn’t Christ always forgive you? And yet there’s a pattern here. For those who wrong you. And they come for forgiveness and they may come consistently for forgiveness. And we’re to forgive them. Constantly forgiving. He graciously forgives. Some people offer forgiveness in a very ungracious manner. It’s almost as if they have to come down from such high heights from Mount Sinai themselves to come down and deal with you poor mortal who has sinned against them. as if it was some kind of an extraordinary step that they should forgive you of anything, as if they’re angelically holy in and of themselves, and you are not. You know, you never feel that about Christ. When Christ forgives, he doesn’t scold the offender. He forgans them. Nor does Christ require meritorious acts first to prove that you’re worthy of forgiveness. When did Christ ever tell someone you’ve got to perform? a particular act in order for me to forgive you. You prove yourself first by change behavior, and then I’ll forgive you. Do you ever read anything about that? Whoever deserves to be forgiven. If a person deserved to be forgiven, it would be justice. It wouldn’t be grace. It wouldn’t be mercy. Did the woman caught in the act of adultery deserve forgiveness? Didn’t she deserve to be stoned because she violated the law of God? Does he require the woman? to first prove she’s worried to be forgiven? Does she have to modify her behavior first? No, Christ forgives her. He doesn’t condemn her, but he does tell her, now go, and send no more. This is your example. You must graciously forgive your offender. Your pattern for forgiveness is Jesus Christ himself. He readily forgives. He completely forgives. He continuously forgives. He graciously forgives. Secondly, the biblical principles you must follow in forgiveness. Now, if you would, turn with me to Luke 17, where Jesus lays out what we’re to do when it comes to forgiveness. Beginning with verse 3, I’ll read through verse 10. Take heed to yourselves, if thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him, and if you repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against these seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee saying, I repent, thou shalt forgive him. And the Apostle said unto the Lord, increase our faith. And the Lord said, If he had faith as a grain of mustard seed, he might say unto this sycamore tree, be thou plucked up by the root, be thou planted into the sea, and it should obey you. But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, go and sit down to eat, and will not rather say unto him, make ready, wherewith I may suck, engird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken, and afterward, thou shalt eat and drink. Duffy thanked that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye have done all those things which are commanded, you say, we are unprofitable servants, we have done that which was our duty to do. Now what does Jesus teach here about forgiveness? Well, the first thing is, whenever your brother seeks forgiveness, you have to be willing to forgive him. Isn’t that what it says? in verse three and four. Whenever your brother seeks forgiveness, forgiving. Now you may need to rebuke the offender. You may have to tell him his sin. May you have to point it out. We are not allowed to sort of quietly stew and not say anything, but to actively mend the breach is our responsibility. If your brother repents, you’re obligated to forgive him. If he asks for forgiveness, forgive him. however often your brother seeks forgiveness, you’re to forgive him. Verse four, how many times your brother offends you in one day is irrelevant, isn’t it? You’re not to write him off, but accept his repentance, and each time you are to grant him forgiveness. Now this, we look at the, we talked about this just a little while ago where we would continuously forgive. Seven times. in a day may seem excessive, but the idea is, hey, if he keeps coming, you keep forgiving. That’s what the scripture indicates to us. Now, you have no excuse for failing to forgive. Again, we’ll look at verses 4 to 10 here. Now, you can’t demand evidence first of sincere repentance. If a person sins against you seven times in one day, you could easily question. their sincerity. About the third or fourth time, you may be tempted to say, you know what, I don’t think you really mean it. But since we can’t read that person’s heart, we have to take him at his word. And if he asked for forgiveness, if he sincerely repents, we are to forgive him. We don’t have to require proof works first. We don’t have to say, hey, show me something first. You simply forgive him when he asked for it. Notice this. You can’t have to be proof works first. You can’t you cannot claim spiritual unpreparedness. Now, disciples upon hearing this in verse 5 and 6, when they say you have to do it seven times a day, the apostles say, under the Lord, increase our faith, Christ’s disciples were taken back by what Christ said. What do you mean? I have to forgive him each time, even seven times? You may be taken back also. You might think, well, you know, I don’t think I’m spiritual. mature enough to do that. I need a lot more faith. It’s too difficult for me to do. And what does Jesus say to you? You don’t need more faith to do what I command you to do. A little faith goes a long way and can do great things. You don’t need any more faith. You simply need to do as I’ve commanded you to do. Spiritual maturity doesn’t enter into the picture. You can be a baby, Christ. It doesn’t matter. If your brother comes and asks for forgiveness, you’re to forgive him. That’s it. Not a matter of whether you have enough faith or not, you cannot wait until you feel like forgiving. Versus 7 to 10. Now, here we have a little parable or story that the Lord tells about a master and a servant. So when you complain, you say, you know what, I just can’t forgive this person. I just don’t feel like doing it. Christ will point you to this particular parable that he is told. It’s actually a pretty terrible confession because Paul said he can do all things through Christ which strengthens him. So yes, you can do it. But Jesus anticipates this kind of objection and he relates this story. Now here, picture this now. Here’s a servant. He works out in the fields all day long. We don’t know if he’s taking care of the cattle or the sheep or maybe he’s plowing the field. We don’t know. But he’s working all day long out in the field. Out under the hot sun. When the sun begins to set, he wearily makes his way back to the house. He’s tired. He’s worn out. He’s had a long day of work. When he gets there, does the master say, well, here, sit down. Let me get you something to eat. Is that what he does? What does the master do? The master tells the servant, fix me dinner. And when I’m done eating, and after you’re done serving me, then you can eat something. Now, how do you think that servant felt as he’s preparing the dinner for his master first? He’s cooking all the food. He’s smelling all the delicious aroma of the kitchen. And he can’t eat a thing. He has to wait. And then he has to go out and serve his master. So he’s out there waiting on his master, getting, you know, the wine or whatever his master is eating, and serving him this, serving him that. Hey, you know, I’d like some more potatoes. I think I’ll have a second helping on the meat. Worst dessert. You know, he finally gets it all done. And then starving, he sits down and he can eat himself. He gets something. eat. Now, when the master finishes, does he thank the servant? He says, you know, I really want to appreciate all the work you did in the field today, and I appreciate the meal you got ready. Does he say thank you? No, he expects, that’s what the servant’s supposed to do. He expects the servant to do that, doesn’t he? The conclusion that Jesus draws here. And remember, he’s the master. He expects you as his servant to do all he commands you, regardless of how you feel about it. Your feelings don’t enter into the picture. Because you can be like this servant and say, I don’t feel like plowing in the field today. I don’t feel like preparing the meal. It doesn’t matter. You’re the servant. You do what the master tells you to do. Indeed. We’re still unprofitable servants. We have not done any more than what we can commanded to do. And so the lesson of this is you’ve forgiven us. person because Christ commands it. Your feelings don’t matter. It doesn’t enter to the picture. When did Jesus ever tell you, take, you know, take evaluation of your feelings whether you’re going to do this command or not that I give you. He gives you the command and he expects you to do it regardless of how you feel about it. So here are the principles or forgiveness. So your necessary attitude for forgiveness is forbearance. and your scriptural duty of granting forgiveness is to follow Christ’s example, even as, and we see his teaching here in verse 7, chapter 17, a look, of what he says about forgiveness. These are the principles, and you have his example. And that’s what forgiveness in scripture is to be like. And that’s what we should put into practice.