SOMETIMES IT HELPS TO REMEMBER- BY PASTOR GREG ELKAN
The Apostle Paul declares in 2Co 5:17 that _“ If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new;”_ and the LORD commands us in Isa 43:18 to _“Remember not the former things, neither consider the things of old.”_
One of the beauty of our forgiveness of sins is the fact that we can let go of our past and live life anew in Christ. The LORD has blotted out our sins, and He has promised to remember them no more. Halleluiah!
This ‘forgetting,’ however, must not come at the cost of our empathy, sensitivity and compassion. It’s unfortunate that some Believers have what I call ‘wilful amnesia’ – the pharisaic, sanctimonious way of acting as though they have never sinned in their life.
The Bible calls us to be sanctified, not to be _sanctimonious;_ it commands us to be holy, not to be _holier-than-thou!_ So, Believers who look at sinners with repulsion, or who act disgusted when a fellow brother or sister is overtaken in sin are the kind that Peter describes in his epistle as those who have _“forgotten that they were cleansed from their past sins.”_ (2Pet 1:9 ERV)
True holiness hates the sin but loves the sinner; and true Christianity ‘forgets’ the sinful past but acknowledges that it once existed.
It is the remembering that we were once sinners that helps us appreciate the struggle other sinners may be going through; it is the acknowledging that it is by the grace of God that we stand that helps us restore fallen brethren with empathy rather than condemnation and judgment.
We have nothing to gain in keeping tab of our old sins; but we have something to lose if forgetting it means losing appreciation for the gift of God’s forgiveness – in our lives, and in the lives of those around us.
AMEN...
More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.
PASTOR GREG ELKAN
- Nigeria
Post a Comment