Consider your own actions first

Life is lived in proximity to other people.  There are people that we genuinely like to be around, they meet an emotional relational need in our lives, and we enjoy their presence.  God has given us people in our lives that make us better and challenge us to grow and become more like Jesus.  As a Pastor, one of my goals is to help people grow in their faith and knowledge of Jesus so that they will be transformed by God in every action, word, and deed.

On the other hand, there are times when people just don’t act like Jesus.  It is easy to point out other people’s sins, but Jesus reminds to remove the plank from our own eye, before pointing out the speck in other’s eyes.  We need to recognize the pain we cause to others in our actions, we know what we did, but we need to consider how our actions affect others.  We tend not to think about the harm we cause others, because we logically justify our actions and proclaim them right without pausing to consider what we are about to do in light of scripture.

All people justify their actions based on their cultural mores and values; we make choices for our benefit or comfort and, depending on what we value, consider, to some extent, the lives of others.  In these life choices, we have created friction with others that may or may not be biblically correct.  We need to seek forgiveness for our actions towards others, and we others offend us we need to forgive others.

Now forgiveness is a difficult subject for a lot of people, because we don’t want to be proven wrong, and we want to be proven right before others.  God calls us to a deeper relationship with Him in our conflict, to act more like Him when we need to forgive and be forgiven.  We are taught in Ephesians 4:30-32,

30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.

We have been called to forgive like God forgave us.  God acted before we realized we sinned, He even died on the cross before we were born because He wanted to extend to us forgiveness.  If God acted first, we must extend forgiveness first to others.  By forgiving first we acknowledge that God is at work in the world.

Extending forgiveness does not let the offender off the hook, rather forgiveness sets us free from the potential sins of bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander, and malice.  God will bring justice to the sinner; we have to trust that He will work that out (I am still going to report crimes to the local authorities).  God is drawing us back into right relationship with Himself, let us seek to be forgiven by Him and extend that same forgiveness to others.

Humbly forgive and be forgiven, recognizing our humanity and God’s sovereign justice.