Forgive One Another
Don’t drink the poison cup
===
You must put away all bitterness, anger, wrath, quarreling, and slanderous talk—indeed all malice. Instead, be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.
Ephesians 4:31-32 (NET)
===
Back in college, I had a pastor describe bitterness as “drinking poison, hoping the other person gets sick.”
An absurd — yet eerily accurate — visual.
A lot of Paul’s letters to the churches deal with this taking off the old self and putting on Christ. Sort of like removing dirty, stained clothes and putting on fresh ones.
The old clothes, those six attitudes of division, are all linked. Rather than digging into the individually (something you could do, but I don’t think is needed for this email), I would group them.
They serve as details of a picture of the dirt & division of sin.
A question that might naturally arise: if Christ has forgiven us, why do we need to work on putting these things away and adding forgiveness?
After all, isn’t the Holy Spirit doing transformation work for us?
There’s a tension here.
Yes, God is doing a work in us. But, also yes, we have a responsibility to help that work along and do our best to become more like Christ.
A bitter heart is an unforgiving heart. These attitudes work at cross purposes. So, we must turn away from one and turn to the other. After all, that’s exactly what repentance is.
Plus, forgiving one another is just one more way we can act like Jesus (because He first forgave us).
I’m thankful God forgave me.
It makes sense for me to spread an attitude of forgiveness to others.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
Scripture quoted by permission. Quotations designated (NET) are from the NET Bible® copyright ©1996, 2019 by Biblical Studies Press, L.L.C. http://netbible.com All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (ESV) are from the ESV®Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®), copyright© 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NKJV) are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.