5 Now if anyone has caused pain, he has caused it not to me, but in some measure--not to put it too severely--to all of you. 6 For such a one, this punishment by the majority is enough, 7 so you should rather turn to forgive and comfort him, or he may be overwhelmed by excessive sorrow. 8 So I beg you to reaffirm your love for him. 9 For this is why I wrote, that I might test you and know whether you are obedient in everything. 10 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. Indeed, what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ, 11 so that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.
It made me recall a conversation I had on Friday, about schisms in the church and how hard they are to deal with.
And then I read this is .. it's like wow.. forgetting to love each other.. it hurts all of us you know.
We need to forgive each other.
BUT.. we also need to remember in that forgiveness to show each other love.
LEST we cause pain and sorrow to the person that we have forgiven.
Does that make sense to do?
And I know.. sometimes it's so easy to harbour feelings of anger and bitterness and regret over the wrongs done to us.
But what's the point?
Seriously.
I need to let those go and actively love up on the people I have said I have forgiven! I MUST! If I don't I hurt the whole church body. And God calls me to more than that. He calls us all to more than that.
Shall we get over ourselves already and see the bigger picture?
What say you?