| Yesterday's Bible Study |
In this morning's verse, Paul is telling Christians in Thessalonica (modern-day Greece) about the importance of forgiving each other. He says they should follow what "is good." Rather than repaying evil with evil, they should extend grace and forgiveness to all those who hurt them. This is an important reminder for us today that God doesn't want us to be vengeful or try to hurt those who have wounded us; instead, we must leave justice in His hands.
When we refuse to repay evil with evil, and treat others well no matter how they have treated us, we are extending grace to them. Instead of holding their wrongs over their heads, we are saying that we forgive them--exactly as Jesus has done for us. We were once sinners forever separated from the Lord, but when Jesus died for us, it became possible for us to be redeemed once and for all. The Lord set us free from sin and shame. When we forgive other people, we show them the heart of Jesus.
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Yet giving unconditional grace to another person can be challenging. Sometimes, showing grace or forgiveness seems like we're saying their bad treatment of us was okay--but that isn't the case. The act of forgiving is actually acknowledgement that a wrong was committed against us, but we're not going to harbor anger and resentment over it. So we forgive.
Indeed, when the Lord forgives us, He is not saying we never did anything against Him. Much to the contrary, He is saying that it was wrong, but the debt has already been paid by Jesus. If we need to know what the Lord thinks about sin, we need only look at the cross. He takes other people's actions against us seriously--so seriously that Jesus had to die for them to be forgiven.
This means showing grace to another person--"following that which is good," in Paul's words--is not erasing the wrong that has been done. It is recognizing that Jesus has paid the price once and for all. We live because of His grace, and it is our privilege to extend that grace to other people.
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