Forgive One Another

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.” The word we are going to focus on today is the act of forgiving one another. The word in the Greek means “to show grace, to forgive, to pardon, or to give freely”. It can take on many different meanings and in this context, the best definition would be to show grace to one another given the context of being kind and compassionate. On the side of forgiveness, this is also an important aspect of showing grace. When we forgive one another, we are letting go of the hostility and gap that lies between one another because of an offense. Although not the same word in Greek, Jesus tells us to forgive each other because God forgave us and Pau repeats that same teaching here. We show race to one another because God has shown us grace so to return the favor, so to speak, we show grace to one another. There cannot be unity without forgiveness since when we forgive we bring the spirit of Christ into the relationship. When we forgive, we show Christ to one another and that is just what he has asked of us.