The Importance of Forgiveness (A)
Consider a few spiritual realities. First, we can give ground in our life to Satan—“Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and give no opportunity to the devil.”
(Ephesians 4:26-27) When the sun goes down on our anger, two things occur: bitterness takes root, and Satan gains a foothold in our life. The word translated “opportunity” is topos, which means “ground”; and Hebrews 12:15 is clear about the result of bitterness when we miss God’s grace in a situation: “See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no ‘root of bitterness’ springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled.” Second, Satan is a dedicated real estate developer. See 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 … “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ.” Key to understanding this passage: “strongholds” = mindsets; “arguments” = consideration (before decisions); and “lofty opinion” = barrier. Thinking that justifies anger is bitterness and becomes a barrier to the truth. Third, God allows “tormentors” to get our attention, which we will see when we get into Matthew 18:21-35. We are each made up of a spirit, a soul, and a body. The soul is your mind, will, and emotions. Here’s how it works. Satan gains a piece of ground in our soul though our sin. He then builds strongholds in our mind—bitterness. We begin to make decisions by our will based on wrong thinking. God allows Satan to torment us through our emotions to bring repentance, i.e. unexplained fear, lust, anger, insomnia, depression, etc. The problem is: ground given through sin can be regained only through forgiveness!
Sin cera, Erik
Erik O. Garthe is Associate Pastor at Canton Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland.