JoeK

In the same epistle, 2 Ti 2:8, Paul calls The Gospel 'his' Gospel. Two other times in Scripture, Paul refers to The Gospel as My Gospel. How did Alexander the coppersmith do him great harm? Paul says himself in that passage you quoted: "For he strongly opposed our message". Paul could only be 'harmed' by those who opposed the Gospel (his Gospel) and so too, Peter and the apostles and disciples concerns regarding 'Paul the Persecutor of the Church'. This whole idea of being taught to forgive for our own best interest is completely alien to our Father who gave His Son to die for us while we were His enemies. We are taught to imitate Christ, and Christ always did the will of His Father in Heaven. God has absolutely zero self-interests. He doesn't forgive us and reconcile us to Himself for His needs, but solely for our benefit. We were never taught to forgive and to let go of bitterness for our own best interest, but solely for the benefit of others. Regarding bringing serial killers into the discussion is about like asking, 'Can God make a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it?'. We are never tested beyond what we are able 1 Cor 10:13 because God is Faithful. We only ever need to concern ourselves with whatever situations, circumstances and people that God puts us directly into contact with. Regarding all of those scenarios, we are indeed more than capable of responding exactly as Jesus would. And regarding family: "If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple." Jesus Himself said that in Luke 14:26. That essentially means that if family becomes an excuse for not loving Jesus ("If you love me, you obey my commandments" John 14:15) then you have to leave them in God's care. Every hair of their head has been counted and they are worth more to God than many sparrows. Mt 10:29-31

Thank you for the heads up regarding some of the teachings of Rick Warren. I do not learn from him but primarily from more 'old school' folk like Oswald Chambers. You mentioned a connection between being reconciled and trust. To me, forgiveness and reconciliation (trust) appear to be two sides of the same coin. When God Graciously forgives us, He also reconciles us to Himself automatically, immediately, and fully. We don't begin a long, hard process of being reconciled to Him. And if we are God's Children, we do as our Father does. And to whom do we have the opportunity to do as our Father does if not to those other humans that we encounter on our daily goings about? It seems that we forget that we were enemies of God when He died for us. We tend to minimalize that in our dealings with our 'enemies'. We may not be commanded to trust but we are commanded to love. And the Bible was not vague about the Biblical definition of love: 1) Love always trusts. 2) Love keeps no record of wrong. 3) Love never fails. What does it mean to die to oneself? To be crucified with Christ and no longer live, but Christ lives in us? To deny oneself, take up one's cross and to follow Him? What do these things mean to a person who still believes that he has a right to himself and can make claims against others? Any sin committed against a disciple of Christ does not land on him, but on Christ Himself ("Whatever you did unto the least of these, you did it unto me.") And if we are indeed dead to ourselves, then what right do we have to take from Christ what rightful belongs to Him, for Him, the True Judge, to decide what to do about it Himself?

I've encountered a teaching that seems to be quite prevalent, at least here in Israel. I first heard it taught in "The Purpose Driven Life" by Pastor Rick Warren and I have since encountered this teaching in 3 different Messianic Congregations here in Israel. That message is basically, 'forgiveness does not mean trust: that we as believers must forgive as Jesus taught, even 77 times (or 70 times 7 times) but that does not mean trusting the other person. They must re-earn our trust' and I basically just accepted this message as fact since it does seem to be reasonable. Then a few months ago, I finally watched the 1935 version of Les Miserables. For some inexplicable reason, I had been wanting to read or watch it for the last year or so but kept putting it off. When I finally encountered that scene with the Bishop and Jean Valjean, something hit me very hard about it. The way the bishop gave Jean the silver candlesticks when the police brought him back to the place and then the way the bishop told him before he left that he is always welcome there and that the front door is the proper way and not by any other means. It may be fictional, but it reminded me of a factual story. The story from "The Cross and the Switchblade" and the way in which David Wilkerson led Niki Cruz and gang to the Lord. How he had finally gotten several gang members and others from the community together in an auditorium to share with them the Gospel message and how David Wilkerson asked Niki Cruz and his gang to take up the offering. As they were going through the passage up to the balcony, they noticed an exit door and were about to run off with the money when suddenly it occurred to them: 'This guy is trusting us. No one has ever trusted us before' and they brought the offering up to David. That single act of trust was instrumental in dissolving NYC gangs and eventually lead to hundreds of inner city Victory Outreach Missions throughout the world today, including one in Haifa, Israel. So I started asking myself, "Why is it whenever this message of 'forgiveness does not equal trust' is taught, they do not bring any scriptural support for it?" And I'm kind of hard pressed. I am no doctor of scripture but I am quite familiar in a general overview sort of way and usually when I am troubled like this, the Lord will bring to memory scriptural support. But none arises to memory. Three insights have been occurring to me and I'd really like some input here: 1) Forgiveness minus Trust really equals unforgiveness; 2) The person may be being hypocritical, saying to the other that they are forgiven, but their behavior, attitude and actions do not outwardly demonstrate it; 3) We are supposed to show to others the same Grace God showed us. God doesn't tell us, "I forgive you but now you must earn my trust". How then could we approach His Throne of Grace... How then will He welcome us into His Home? If I am way off base here, then please let me know. I've been wrong many times in the past, and will be pleasantly surprised if I am way wrong about this: it will be an excellent reminder of how fallible I am and how much I need to be involved regularly in open discussions with other followers of Christ. God Bless! Joe