Bring It to the Table - Forgiveness

A Conversation around the Table...

A woman brought suit against her husband for divorce. She told the judge she had nagged and nagged the man but he just wouldn’t do right. Referring to Paul’s words in Romans 12:20, the judge asked the woman if she had tried to “heap coals of fire on his head.” The woman answered, “No, but I don’t think it will work. I’ve already tried scalding water, and that didn’t do any good.”

(Herschel H. Hobbs, My Favorite Illustrations (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1990), 102.)

Ephesians 4:32–5:2 NASB 2020

32 Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. 1 Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children; 2 and walk in love, just as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.

KIND & COMPASSIONATE (NMP ADJ)

Kind: root (xrastos)

FORGIVING (Present M\P PTC)

root: xairo - grace, glad, rejoice

Forgiveness...with kindness and compassion

John 8:1–12 NASB 2020

1 But Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. 2 And early in the morning He came again into the temple area, and all the people were coming to Him; and He sat down and began teaching them. 3 Now the scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman caught in the act of adultery, and after placing her in the center of the courtyard, 4 they said to Him, “Teacher, this woman has been caught in the very act of committing adultery. 5 Now in the Law, Moses commanded us to stone such women; what then do You say?” 6 Now they were saying this to test Him, so that they might have grounds for accusing Him. But Jesus stooped down and with His finger wrote on the ground. 7 When they persisted in asking Him, He straightened up and said to them, “He who is without sin among you, let him be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 And again He stooped down and wrote on the ground. 9 Now when they heard this, they began leaving, one by one, beginning with the older ones, and He was left alone, and the woman where she was, in the center of the courtyard. 10 And straightening up, Jesus said to her, “Woman, where are they? Did no one condemn you?” 11 She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “I do not condemn you, either. Go. From now on do not sin any longer.” 12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, “I am the Light of the world; the one who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”

Luke 6:38 NASB 2020

38 Give, and it will be given to you. They will pour into your lap a good measure—pressed down, shaken together, and running over. For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Matthew 7:1–5 NASB 2020

1 “Do not judge, so that you will not be judged. 2 For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you. 3 Why do you look at the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ and look, the log is in your own eye? 5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye!

1 John 2:3–6 NASB 2020

3 By this we know that we have come to know Him, if we keep His commandments. 4 The one who says, “I have come to know Him,” and does not keep His commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him; 5 but whoever follows His word, in him the love of God has truly been perfected. By this we know that we are in Him: 6 the one who says that he remains in Him ought, himself also, walk just as He walked.

Leonardo da Vinci was one of the outstanding intellects of all history, for he was great as a draftsman, an engineer, and a thinker. Just before he commenced work on his “Last Supper” he had a violent quarrel with a fellow painter. So enraged and bitter was Leonardo that he determined to paint the face of his enemy, the other artist, into the face of Judas, and thus take his revenge and vent his spleen by handling the man down in infamy and scorn to succeeding generations. The face of Judas was therefore one of the first that he finished, and everyone could easily recognize it as the face of the painter with whom he had quarreled.

But when he came to paint the face of Christ, he could make no progress. Something seemed to be baffling him, holding him back, frustrating his best efforts. At length he came to the conclusion that the thing which was checking and frustrating him was the fact that he had painted his enemy into the face of Judas. He therefore painted out the face of Judas and commenced anew on the face of Jesus, and this time with the success which the ages have acclaimed.

You cannot at one and the same time be painting the features of Christ into your own life, and painting another face with the colors of enmity and hatred.

Paul Lee Tan, Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations: Signs of the Times (Garland, TX: Bible Communications, Inc., 1996), 457–458.