Forgiveness of Sins and the Believer’s Interaction with Their Fellow-Believer

Since the child of God has received the forgiveness of sins at the moment of their justification through faith alone in Jesus Christ alone, they are now obligated to forgive others and especially, their fellow child of God.

This principle is taught in Colossians 3:13 and Ephesians 4:32.

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, because each and every one of you are elected by God the Father, holy as well as divinely loved, I solemnly charge the clothing of yourselves with compassion which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility gentleness, patience. 13 Simultaneously, continue making it your habit of tolerating one another, while also continuing to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. Whenever anyone possesses a complaint against anyone just as the Lord in fact graciously forgave each and every one of you for His own glory, so also in the same way, each and every one of you must continue to make it your habit of graciously forgiving each other. (My translation)

Colossians 3:13 contains two temporal clauses which are connected to the command in Colossians 3:12 and are to occur simultaneously with the Colossians’ continued obedience to this command.

These two temporal clauses are followed by a third class conditional statement which presents a hypothetical situation taking place in Colossae.

It also teaches a spiritual principle with regards to the concept of forgiveness among believers in Jesus Christ.

This third class conditional statement is a reminder to the Colossians that they are obligated to forgive each other.

In Colossians 3:12, the apostle Paul commanded the faithful Christians in Colossae to clothe themselves with compassion, which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience.

Now, here in Colossians 3:13, he wants them to continue making it their habit of performing two more actions which he wants to coincide with this command in Colossians 3:12.

The first requires that the Colossians continue making it their habit of tolerating one another.

The second is that they continue making it their habit of forgiving one another.

Therefore, Paul is instructing the Colossians to clothe themselves with compassion, which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience while tolerating and forgiving one another.

In other words, when they clothe themselves with compassion which is the product of deep seated affections, kindness, humility, gentleness, patience, he wants them to simultaneously make it their habit of forgiving each other.

By performing these two actions of tolerating and forgiving one another in conjunction with this command in Colossians 3:12, the Colossians would continue to manifest the love of God in their lives.

In fact, in Colossians 3:14, Paul commands the Colossians that in addition to the godly virtues listed in Colossians 3:12-13, they were to put on love which is the perfect bond of unity.

The Colossians were already manifesting these godly virtues and thus operating in the love of God.

Thus, Paul’s instructions in Colossians 3:12-13 are preventative maintenance and an encouragement to these faithful believers in Colossae.

This is indicated by two passages in Colossians.

The first, Colossians 1:3-5 records the apostle Paul informing these faithful Christians in Colossae that he gave thanks to the Father in prayer for them after hearing about their faith in Jesus Christ and that they were practicing the love of God with one another.

Colossians 1:3 We continue making it our habit of giving thanks to God namely the Father of our Lord, who is Jesus, who is the Christ when we make it our habit of occupying ourselves with praying on behalf of each and every one of you as a corporate unit. 4 We do this because we heard about your faith in Christ, who is Jesus and in addition your love which you continue to regularly demonstrate for the benefit of each and every one of the saints. 5 All of you do this because of the confident expectation which is, as an eternal spiritual truth reserved in the heavens for all of you. All of you heard this by means of the teaching, which is the truth, namely the proclamation of the gospel. (My translation)

Secondly, in Colossians 2:5, he asserts that he was rejoicing over the fact that they were disciplined and specifically their dedication which was produced by their faith with regards to their union and identification with Jesus Christ.

Therefore, by obeying Paul’s instructions in Colossians 3:12-13, the Colossians would continue to manifest the love of God in their lives with regards to each other.

The love of God or divine-love is produced by the Holy Spirit through the believer who is obedient to the Spirit inspired command of the Lord Jesus Christ to love one another as He loves.

Divine love exercised by Christians is distinguished from the exercise of human love in that the former is a response to God’s love for the Christian and expression of faith in God whereas the latter is based upon the attractiveness of the object.

The Colossians were already reflecting God’s love towards the Lord Jesus by demonstrating this love in their relationships with each other.

These faithful Colossian believers demonstrated love for the Lord Jesus who is the head of the body of Christ, by exercising this love towards the body of Christ.

It indicates that they obeyed the Lord Jesus’ command to love one another as He loves (John 13:34).

By continuing to make it their habit of tolerating and forgiving one another, the Colossians would avoid the practice of the sins mentioned in Colossians 3:8 and which sins would manifest their indwelling old Adamic sin nature.

Colossians 3:8 But now, I also solemnly charge each and every one of you, for your own benefit to lay aside each and every one of the following: destructive, uncontrolled anger, malice, slander, filthy language from the mouth of each and every one of you. 9 Each and every one of you continue making it your habit of not lying to one another because each and every one of you for your own benefit have stripped off the old man with its practices. (Author’s translation)

When Paul speaks of the Colossians continuing to make it their habit of tolerating one another in Colossians 3:13, it expresses the fact that he wants them to continue making it their habit of enduring personal difficulties with each other without retaliating against each other and without complaint when these problems take place among each other.

He wants them to continue to successfully overcome the urge or impulse to retaliate against each other and resent each other when one of them says or does something injurious or distasteful to them.

He wants them to do this without complaint.

This idea of manifesting God’s love through toleration of one another appears in Ephesians 4:2 and is one of the positive “one another commands” in Scripture.

Ephesians 4:2 with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love. (NASB95)

Now, when Paul speaks of the Colossians continuing to make it their habit of forgiving each other, he wants them to continue making it their habit of“graciously” forgiving each other.

If you recall, this idea of forgiveness which is gracious appeared in Colossians 2:13 which asserts that the Father “graciously forgave” each and every one of the transgressions committed by the Colossians prior to their conversion.

Colossians 2:13 In other words, even though each and every one of you existed in the state of being spiritually dead ones because of your transgressions, specifically because of the uncircumcision which is your flesh, He caused each and every one of you to be made alive together with Him. Simultaneously for His own glory, He graciously forgave each and every one of our transgressions for the benefit of each and every one of us. (My translation)

Like the godly virtue of tolerating one another, this godly virtue of manifesting God’s love through forgiveness of one another is one of the positive “one another commands” in Scripture.

It also appears in Ephesians 4:32.

Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you. (NASB95)

The third class condition in Colossians 3:13 presents a hypothetical situation in the church at Colossae.

It teaches a spiritual principle or spiritual axiom that the Christians in Colossae must forgive each other just as the Lord has forgiven each of them all of their sins.

In other words, he is teaching them that they are obligated to forgive each because the Lord Jesus Christ graciously forgave each and every one of them, each and every one of their sins.

In fact, as we noted earlier, he reminds them in Colossians 2:13 that the Father graciously forgave each and every one of the transgressions committed by the Colossians prior to their conversion.