Forgive as You’ve Been Forgiven
Scripture: 1 John 4:20Devotional Series: Preparing for Persecution
Teaching: Preparing For Persecution pt. 5 (SUN_AM 2021-04-25) by Pastor Star R Scott
This is the admonition: “Be strong in the Lord, and the power of His might.” Without Him we can do nothing that is accepted by Him; amen? It all has to originate and consummate in Jesus through the Word of God: the commandments of God; the mandates that He set forth. Be strong in the Lord.
It’s not different from forgiveness: someone has abused you (perhaps you were beaten or taken advantage of as a child) and you have scars from those incidents; then you become born again and you think, “I just can’t let that go,” but you have no choice; amen? You can’t love God whom you haven’t seen if you can’t love your neighbor whom you have seen (1 John 4:20), for whom God has provided His blood to redeem and who sees them as precious. We are to love as we have been loved. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven. You can’t do that without being strong in the Lord; amen? Be strong in the Lord. God is just! Don’t hold yourself up as judge, because you will be judged by the same judgment with which you judge. If you judge that Jesus’ blood is sufficient for everybody except that person you hate, that is how you will be judged: you will be the exception, and you will have the wrath of God upon your life. Put on the whole armor of God…be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would strengthen us by Your Spirit. This hour in which we live, Father, sees not only the church being hated but, within the church, many of these carnal ideas that people hold, whether it be gender‑related, race‑related, or caste‑related, is not of You. We have become new creatures separated from the world and unto Your church. There is not male or female, Jew or Gentile: we are all one in Christ; we are all of one blood. You died for every one of us. Father, help us to see, the one thing that has to be done: the preparation to put on this armor is sanctification, the choices we make in the spirit and not in the flesh. Make it real, Father, and we will give you all the glory for it in Jesus’ name. Amen.
It’s not different from forgiveness: someone has abused you (perhaps you were beaten or taken advantage of as a child) and you have scars from those incidents; then you become born again and you think, “I just can’t let that go,” but you have no choice; amen? You can’t love God whom you haven’t seen if you can’t love your neighbor whom you have seen (1 John 4:20), for whom God has provided His blood to redeem and who sees them as precious. We are to love as we have been loved. We are to forgive as we have been forgiven. You can’t do that without being strong in the Lord; amen? Be strong in the Lord. God is just! Don’t hold yourself up as judge, because you will be judged by the same judgment with which you judge. If you judge that Jesus’ blood is sufficient for everybody except that person you hate, that is how you will be judged: you will be the exception, and you will have the wrath of God upon your life. Put on the whole armor of God…be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.
Father, we thank You for Your Word. We ask that You would strengthen us by Your Spirit. This hour in which we live, Father, sees not only the church being hated but, within the church, many of these carnal ideas that people hold, whether it be gender‑related, race‑related, or caste‑related, is not of You. We have become new creatures separated from the world and unto Your church. There is not male or female, Jew or Gentile: we are all one in Christ; we are all of one blood. You died for every one of us. Father, help us to see, the one thing that has to be done: the preparation to put on this armor is sanctification, the choices we make in the spirit and not in the flesh. Make it real, Father, and we will give you all the glory for it in Jesus’ name. Amen.