Art of Forgiveness

The Art of Forgiveness
Paul’s Letters – New Revised Standard Version

Text

Notes

ORINTHIANS

But if anyone has caused pain, he has caused

it not to me, but to some extent-- not to exaggerate it-- to all of
you.

This punishment by the majority is enough for such a

person;

so now instead you should forgive and console him, so

that he may not be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow.

So I urge

you to reaffirm your love for him.

I wrote for this reason: to test

you and to know whether you are obedient in everything.

Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if
I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of
Christ.

And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by

Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

E

PHESIANS

Now this I affirm and insist on in the Lord: you

must no longer live as the Gentiles live, in the futility of their
minds.

They are darkened in their understanding, alienated from

the life of God because of their ignorance and hardness of heart.

They have lost all sensitivity and have abandoned themselves to
licentiousness, greedy to practice every kind of impurity.

That is

not the way you learned Christ!

For surely you have heard about

him and were taught in him, as t ruth is in Jesus.

You were taught

to put away your former way of life, your old self, corrupt and
deluded by its lusts,

and to be renewed in the spirit of your

minds,

and to clothe yourselves with the new self, created

according to the likeness of God in true righteousness and holiness.

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to

our neighbors, for we are members of one another.

Be angry but

do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger,

and do not

make room for the devil.

Thieves must give up stealing; rather

let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to
have something to share with the needy.

Let no evil talk come

out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as
there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear.

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were

marked with a seal for the day of redemption.

Put away from

you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander,
together with all malice,

and be kind to one another,

tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven
you.

C

OLOSSIANS

I am saying this so that no one may deceive you

with plausible arguments.

For though I am absent in body, ye t I

am with you in spirit, and I rejoice to see your morale and the
firmness of your faith in Christ.

As you therefore have received

Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him,

rooted

and built up in him and established in the faith, jus t as you were
taught, abounding in thanksgiving.

See to it that no one takes you

captive through philosophy and empty deceit, according to human
tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the universe, and not
according to Christ.

For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells

bodily,

and you have come to fullness in him, who is the head of

every ruler and authority.

In him also you were circumcised with

a spiritual circumcision, by putting off the body of the flesh in the
circumcision of Christ;

when you were buried with him in

baptism, you were also raised with him through faith in the power
of God, who raised him from the dead.

And when you were dead

in trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made you
alive together with him, when he forgave us all our trespasses,

erasing the record that stood against us with its legal demands. He
set this aside, nailing it to the cross.

He disarmed the rulers and

authorities and made a public example of them, triumphing over
them in it.

Therefore do not let anyone condemn you in matters

of food and drink or of observing festivals, new moons, or
sabbaths.

These are only a shadow of what is to come, but the

substance belongs to Christ.

Do not let anyone disqualify you,

insisting on self-abasement and worship of angels, dwelling on
visions, puffed up without cause by a human way of thinking,

and not holding fast to the head, from whom the whole body,
nourished and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows
with a growth that is from God.