Day 136: Loving Enemies, Forgiving All [4]

May 16

Today's Connected Passages: 

• Matthew 6:12-15, 18:21-35 
• Mark 11:25-26 
• Luke 6:37-38, 11:4, 17:3-4, 23:26-34 
• Acts 15:36-41 [2 Timothy 4:11] 
• 2 Corinthians 2:5-11 [1 Corin.. 5:1-2]
• Ephesians 4:31-32 
• Colossians 3:12-14 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Welcome to the Canon Connected, where we read the Connections, see the connections, and study the connections of the Bible. We are so glad you decided to join us for day number 136 of the Canon Connected, and today is the fourth and final part of a series on how the Bible teaches very emphatically and very frequently the idea that we love enemies and that we forgive people. And I've tied these two things together, although there might be subtle differences between them. Jesus definitely put them together in Matthew 5 in the Sermon on the Mount, back-to-back teaching. So I think they definitely can be and should be conjoined at times. And uh we have looked at three days of many passages already, and today there's a common theme around most of them. Um and we've talked a lot about the sovereignty of God, the idea that God will get revenge, so we don't trust in God, believing that he will make all wrongs right, and we don't have to take matters in our own hands. That's a lot of the sovereignty of God and the ideas of trust. But today we're going to laser focus on, you know, the idea that we forgive, as I alluded to yesterday. We ended with Jose and Golmer on this note, and we have that flows right in today perfectly. We forgive because God has forgiven us. And it is hugely hypocritical, and it's very ungrateful. Okay? Nobody wants to be an ingrate, I don't think, but it's very ungrateful for us, as Jesus and others illustrate very powerfully here and very, you know, you know, very uh specifically, for us to be forgiven of a twenty million dollar debt that we cannot pay. Okay? That's the gospel, by the way. All right. And then for us to turn around and somebody owe us ten thousand dollars and absolutely take them to court over it and say, you've got to pay it back. Um we forgive not because we're good people or we're noble or because we're religious or whatever. We forgive because God has forgiven us. That's the that's the that's the founding aspect of all Christian behavior. Who God is. You're not gonna know who you are until you know who God is, and you're not gonna live the way I think that pleases God until you understand how He how He is. You understand God's nature and God's actions. Everything we do is rooted and grounded and flows from that, not from human goodness, not from culture, not from what our ancestors did, but from God. So the connections are pretty simple. I mean, Jesus taught this multiple times, and when he taught about praying, forgive us our debts, as we've forgiven those who have who have debts against us. And then he says, But if you do not forgive others' trespasses, neither will your father forgive trespasses. And that's exactly what he says in Matthew 18. In the Mark 11 account, it excludes that one. And again, I did a whole you know catch-up day reading on this. There sometimes verses are missing from modern translations because of textual reasons, meaning there are some you know manuscripts that don't have these verses that are older, and some modern translations think they they they weren't original and they were added later. But regardless, we know Mark 26, even if it's not in your Bible, it it the what what uh what it does say in the in the in the later manuscripts is the same thing that Matthew 6.15 says. So it really doesn't matter. And that the same idea, if you don't forgive, God's not gonna forgive you, is made quite explicit express and explicit in Matthew 18. And again, it's what I just taught. You try to compare what the the debts here, it comes out to like $20 million. And you know, the vast majority of people can't do that. Very few people can. Um, you can't you get $20 million debt, you're you're sunk, you're hung, okay, unless the person you owe that money to says, I'm wiping it out. Wouldn't matter if I had a thousand years, I don't couldn't pay you back twenty million dollars, I don't think. And then to go out and not forgive somebody a much smaller debt, not an inconsequential debt, okay? You know, thirty thousand dollars or whatever it is, it's nothing to it's again, it's nothing to sneeze at. It's a it's a significant offense. But it doesn't compare to twenty million dollars. And so, and then the Mark 11, again, verse 26 is not in some translations, but it's Matthew 615. Same idea. If you don't forgive, you're not gonna be forgiven. Because it shows, again, that almost sounds like work-based salvation, but I think it shows fruit of Christianity. If there's no fruit, there's no real Christianity, right? A fruit of Christianity is I understand that I've been forgiven twenty million dollars, I'm gonna forgive the twenty and thirty thousand dollar debts people have against me. That is a fruit, and without fruit, there's no real repentance, right? So it's not, doesn't nullify salvation by grace. But if you are a true Christian, you will truly forgive. There that's indisputable based on these passages. Luke 6, 37, and 38, which has some overlap to Matthew 7.1, which I didn't include, but you know, they could be joined together in a different reading. But he says, and you he says, condemn not, you will not be condemned. Forgive and you will be forgiven. Same idea. Give and it will be given to you. This one could have been used for, you know, um, you get you reap what you sow. I didn't include it, maybe next year, but he says, good uh and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, we put in your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you. So here is a connection I never would have thought of in a million years. You reap what you sow with forgive so that you'll be forgiven. It's it shows again you understand you reap what you sow whenever you forgive people. Whatever you give people, that's what's going to be given back to you. Even if they give you bad, if you give them good, eventually God's gonna give you good. Um it's it's really is that simple, I think. Hard to practice, but simple to understand. Same thing, Luke 11, Jesus' teaching is parallel, you know, to the prayers from Mark and Matthew. Luke 17, if your brother sins, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in the day and turns to you seven times saying, I repent, you must forgive him. Luke 23 is again Jesus on the cross. Again, this is the basis for again us forgiving people because Jesus did it. He showed us what it looks like. And now again, Acts 15 with 2 Timothy 2, 4, is not necessarily the God's forgiveness so we should forgive. I put that one in there because it's obvious from the passage to me. There's a dispute, you know, between Paul and Barnabas. And Barnabas wanted to take John Mark, John Mark with them on their trip, and Paul didn't trust him because he abandoned him before, and Paul is, you know, not vindicative, I wouldn't say. And again, sometimes it's good not to trust people, all right? But the point of this putting me putting this in here is to see this connection, which again, pastors in my life have made to made to me, that eventually Paul says, even though he did not trust Mark and he he divided with Barnabas over this, he had a split with Barnabas, okay? As much unity as there is in Acts 15, we see a split. It's truly a fascinating thing. Acts 15 is the church working together to reign unified around salvation, and then right after that, Paul and Barnabas goes their separate ways. Over Mark, over John Mark, and now in 2 Timothy 4, it's almost like Paul admits. He doesn't come out and say it, but he admits he was wrong about this because he says, Get Mark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me in ministry. Paul forgave him. And perhaps he should have in Acts 15. I won't say it's certain there, but it does sound like from 2 Timothy, Paul is basically admitting he should have forgiven him, should have forgiven him before, and trusted him before. Second Corinthians 2, and I included the first couple of verses of 1 Corinthians 5 because it's not certain, although I think it's very likely, and I would say it is, that the person he's talking about in 2 Corinthians 2, which he says to forgive, so he's not overwhelmed with excessive sorrow, is the same individual from 1 Corinthians 5 who was, you know, committing some of the worst sexual perversion you could imagine. And Paul says, now you need to forgive him. And uh the implied idea is he's repented. Paul would not have told them to welcome him back if he hadn't, I don't think. Um, but anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive, Paul says. Isn't that powerful? Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. How powerful is that. And then Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 again reinforce this idea from Matthew 18, you know, that you've been forgiven. God has forgiven you so you forgive. It's that simple and yet that hard to really put into practice sometimes. And I know again, this is this has been hard to think through, not because, again, the interpretation's hard, the application is. And uh, and I pray that God would just use the Holy Spirit to guide us all in there. Because again, the balance is there are imprecatory psalms in the Bible. The balance is there are times where people didn't trust other people, like David not trusting Saul. Um, the balance is that, you know, sometimes you you do need to defend yourself, as we're gonna see tomorrow. There's all kinds of things to bring some balance to this, at least when I mean not balance as much, it's just context, because forgiveness and loving your enemies doesn't always look so you know plain and simple in the sense of you know you continue to get taken advantage of or you don't defend yourself or you don't run or whatever. And we're gonna see that in several readings, but expressly tomorrow, what does self-defense look like in the Bible? Because in the book of Esther, for example, they didn't just roll over and let, you know, um and let themselves be exterminated. Um defense self-defense is a part of our theology as well. So forgiveness looks different in different contexts. So um, so again, we finished with these four days, but a fifth day, again, it's kind of a capper to it, truly. They are connected. Uh the fifth day connected to the fourth day is on purpose. And so come back and be with us again then for that one as we continue to read, see, and study the connections. Thank you.