Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:05] Welcome to Thursday's edition of the Weekday Podcast. Thanks for hanging out with us today, man. I want to encourage you to read Colossians Chapter three this week as a way of getting this truth inside of you.
[00:00:16] Now, picture a living room in a little town called Colossae. Imagine this. This is a church that gathered in this house. And imagine somebody stands up with a letter from the Apostle Paul, and they start reading it out loud. They get to a line and the room goes quiet. Here's the line. Forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone. And imagine in that moment that every head in the room turns and here's why. Paul sent two letters on the same trip, carried by the same people. One was to the church. The other was to a man named Philemon, the leader of that church, probably the one hosting it in his own living room. And one of the men carrying those letters was a man named Onesimus. Colossians 4. 9 tells us about this. Onesimus had been enslaved by Philemon. He'd run away, possibly with some of Philemon's money. And somewhere along the way, this man met Paul, and ultimately he met Jesus. Now Paul is sending him home to the man he had wronged with a letter asking Philemon to receive him, no longer as a slave, but more than a slave, a beloved brother.
[00:01:23] So when that line gets read, whoever has a complaint against anyone, that complaint actually has a face, and he's standing by the door. That's not a theory. That's a Sunday morning. And for some of us, the complaint is at the Thanksgiving table. It's the next cubicle, on the other side of the bed. And notice that Paul doesn't say, forgive the people who didn't really do anything. That word that he uses, complaint, is rare. It's only used here in the whole New Testament, and it means a legitimate grievance. Paul assumes it might be real. And then the word forgiving, it comes from the same root as the word for grace. Forgiveness is grace that's given away. If it had to be earned, it wouldn't be forgiveness, it'd be a paycheck. Paul gives us the reason in the same breath. He says, just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. We don't forgive out of what we have. We forgive out of what we've been given. Now, I need to slow down because some of you are carrying something that's heavy. Forgiveness is not pretending it didn't hurt. God doesn't ask you to lie about it. It's not the same thing. As reconciliation. Forgiveness takes one person, rebuilding trust takes two. And honestly, trust takes time. And forgiveness never means going back to a place where you're not safe. You can forgive someone from a safe distance. If that's you, please talk to a pastor or a trusted counselor, friend. You were never meant to carry that alone. And here's one more thing, and it's a gift. Forgiveness is usually a season, not a switch.
[00:02:54] Maybe you forgave and a week later the memory comes back and the anger comes with it. You think, I guess I really didn't forgive. No, that's just the next part of the season. You put it down again.
[00:03:05] So here's what I want you to do. Name one complaint, just one. Not the whole backpack. One rock. Put it down in prayer before you say a word to anyone. And when it comes back tomorrow, put it down again. Because the grudge, it doesn't hold them, it holds you.
[00:03:21] But when the rock goes down, something has to take its place. Somebody's going to make the next call in your heart. And tomorrow I'll tell you about a 16 year old with a whistle and a dad in a polo shirt who just couldn't stay in the stands until then. I hope you have a great day and we'll see you back here soon.
