21 May Pardon Me (Because my forgiveness does not begin with your apology) PART 2

The Bible tells us in Ephesians 4:30-32, “And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby you are
sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and
evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: and be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

Last week we shared a few of the key words in these powerful Bible verses. The
Greek word translated “bitterness” is pikria which means “to be sharp or bitter.” The Greek
word translated “wrath” is thumos which means “to breathe hard.” The Greek word for
“clamour” is krauge, which literally means “to throw a fit.” The Greek word for “evil speaking”
is blasphemia, which means “to slander.” The Greek word for “malice” is kakia, which means
“bad or badness.”

In verse 32, the Greek word translated “tenderhearted” is eusplagnos, which denotes “from the
heart.” Finally the Greek word for “forgiving” is charizomai, which means “to grant favor,
forgiveness or pardon.”

Then we began a deep dive into the powerful subject of forgiveness.
We are to forgive “…as God for Christ’s sake has forgiven you.”

We shared how God forgives us…
1. Fully!
2. Finally!
3. Freely!

God forgave us fully, finally and freely and that is exactly how we should forgive others…fully,
finally, and freely! We must not allow ourselves to become bitter.

Let’s continue this week.

Please allow me to share with you “Four Bitterness Barometers”:
1. Love graciously even when someone deserves your bitterness.
2. Bitterness is easy. Forgiveness is hard.
3. Bitterness produces bondage. Forgiveness produces freedom.
4. Betrayal is what someone did to you. Bitterness is what you do to yourself.

Now let’s take a look at “13 Forgiveness Facets”:

1. Forgiveness is letting go of vengeance without letting go of justice.
In other words, if someone abused your child, you must let go of the vengeance. You
must let go of your desire to hurt those that hurt you. But that does NOT mean you let
go of the justice. In other words, while we must forgive for our benefit…we should see
to it that the child abuser is put in prison for the benefit of other children! We must let
go of the vengeance without letting go of the justice!

Join us next week as we continue our series…