Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.

Colossians 3:12-14

A couple of days ago we considered five different areas we are to abandon and that’s a start, but in order to grow in our faith, we must fill the voice of those old ways of living. Paul tells us to put on the new self. The committed follower Paul describes is holy, compassionate, kind, humble, patient and forgiving.

As I read the passage above, Paul describes characteristics of the Christian life and within that list, it seems that forgiveness is central to the theme. “As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

• Forgiveness is what God gives to free us and others from the weight of relational failure.
• So we must remember that God didn’t make us with the capacity to carry all the negative residue from what we are unwilling to forgive.
• If we want the kind of life that God promises us, forgiveness is God’s solution.
• Forgiveness is a decision to release a person from the obligation that resulted when he or she injured you.
• And according to the example of Christ, forgiveness is without limits.