I love the way Colossians 3:13 is translated in the NLT and it reads, “Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.” In lieu of ‘make allowance’ other translations used the terms or phrases ‘bear with ’, ‘be tolerant’, ‘put up with’, and ‘forbearing’. I personal think to ‘make allowance’ is the most effective term to use because it properly captures the spirit of what Paul was telling the church at Colossae.
Here’s a little trivia about this translation; the NLT was created by a team of 90 top Hebrew and Greek scholars working with texts in the original languages. It was published in 1996 and the general purpose for the translation was to make the Bible understandable and accessible to all readers.
Now let’s get back to the text…
The Colossians, like most people today struggle with true forgiveness. You see, when we make allowances for people to act stupid what we are really doing is setting a realistic expectation for ourselves. In other words, we insulate our hearts from the adverse effects of harboring anger and resentment because we know at some point we too will eventually need that same allowance….if not more.
Jesus taught His disciples to forgive others in the same way God had forgiven them. Unfortunately, some Christians believe in the concept of forgive them and then banished them. Which is the polar opposite from the way God in Christ forgives us. God chooses to forgive us and then reconciles us back unto fellowship (1 John 1:9).
Look at it this way, God made allowances for every sin known and unknown to man and He crushed them on the cross on Calvary’s Hill. Paul said in Romans 5:8, “But God showed His great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.”
Paul knew that if the church was going to learn how to forgive like God forgives they must first, “be clothed with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience” (Colossians 3:12).
I briefly reviewed the *Barna study and it said, “Most Christians recall a point at which they gave no-strings-attached forgiveness, some express reluctance in specific cases. Around one in four practicing Christians (23%) has a person in their life who “they just can’t forgive.” This study also found that theologically, those who can’t forgive someone are more likely to say people go to heaven because of good deeds (39% to 21%). Practically, they are less likely to believe mercy influences their words or actions (46% to 67%).
Among those that took survey 87% of the respondents that received forgiveness said they have given it in return, compared to 64% of those who said they have not received unconditional forgiveness.
In closing, forgiveness is not an option it’s a command. It’s a command because in Christ Jesus God made allowances for every sin known and unknown to man. Therefore, if you have incarcerated people in your prison of unforgiviness and/or partial unforgivness, it behooves you to exonerate and pardon them immediately because by not doing so you jeopardize your own forgiveness with God. Jesus said in Matthew 6:15, “But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
- This study is based on quantitative surveys of 1,007 U.S. adults, 1,502 U.S. practicing Christian adults and 600 U.S. senior pastors of Protestant churches.
4GIVEN 