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Can We Forgive - Part 1 - Two or Three?

by Jerry Ousley  
7/20/2012 / Christian Living

One cold, wintery morning I was on my way in to work. It was dark outside and at the time I was driving our 1972 Chevy Impala. My daughter hated this car because it was so big. Those of you who remember the automobiles of that era know that the full-sized cars were huge. This particular one had been painted a light green color and as I said, my daughter hated it, calling it our 'huge green boat.' Anyway, it was what I had to drive and so I drove it.

I was in the left hand lane right in the middle of town during the time when people are going in to work. Needless to say the roads were crowded. I stopped at a red light and, wouldn't you know it, this huge car decided to stall. The light turned green and I tried and tried to get it started but it would not start. So I jumped out and tried to push it out of the way so the traffic could get through. Somehow I managed to get it across the right hand lane without getting plowed into but now I had a hill to go up and there was no way I could push that big car uphill by myself. I was in a pickle (and I'm not referring to that big green car).

About that time a good friend I worked with stopped, pulled into the parking lot beside me and helped me push this monster of a car off the road and into the parking lot. Man, was I thankful that my friend showed up that day! Where one person couldn't get the job done, two managed to make it happen.

The point is that we need other people. In Matthew 18:20, Jesus said, "For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them." We have often quoted this scripture in the context of being together in a church setting. While this is not entirely wrong, if we look at the total aspect of this passage of scripture what we'll find is that Jesus was giving a lesson on forgiveness. He spoke about going to a brother or sister if we had a problem with him or her and talking it out. If that didn't resolve the issue then we were to take two or three others with us in effort to work the situation out. We don't see a lot of that these days. Most folks just want to go off, get two or three or more people and talk about the other person. I know that's point blank but the truth is the truth.

The reason Jesus told us that where two or three are gathered together in His name, for His purpose, is that we need each other. It requires us to be together. We need to be together with other believers and that often means that we put up with personality issues. We aren't all the same (thank God). We all have differences. Our opinions vary greatly sometimes and that can be used by the devil to make us clash, dislike the other person, and get angry with each other.

There's nothing wrong with being angry. Even Jesus got angry at the money changers in the Temple. The Bible records many instances of God's anger. So anger is not sin. But how we react to that anger is a whole different matter. Sometimes our anger causes us to say things to people in the heat of the moment that we wouldn't ordinarily say. If we're going to face the truth then we all must admit that sometimes those things that come out in anger were thoughts we had harbored for a long time. We just wouldn't speak them out in respect of the other person. But when we lose control often what we have really felt inside pops out of our mouths and the damage is done.

That's when we need to forgive. We must learn to forgive. This whole passage of scripture is about forgiving our brothers and sisters. It isn't easy and sometimes it takes time because true forgiveness cannot take place until we are willing to not just say the words, "I forgive you," but to let go of our offense against and from the other person. It happens when we realize that no matter is too great for God to remove. In fact, we must forgive.

Jerry D. Ousley is the author of ?Soul Challenge?, ?Soul Journey?, ?Ordeal?, ?The Spirit Bread Daily Devotional and his first novel ?The Shoe Tree.? Visit our website at spiritbread.com to download these and more completely free of charge.

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