The Patience of Jesus

Overview

Today we’re going to look at the practice of forgiveness in the Christian life. First, what God calls us to do and secondly, how to get the power to do it. Forgiveness is not just one of the many biblical commands that we have to force ourselves to do, but forgiveness becomes genuine and real when there is a deep change at the heart level. We don’t look at the law and follow it as an end in itself, but we look at Jesus to be changed from the inside out – this is where we get the power to truly practice forgiveness.

There are three things in today’s passage Jesus tells us that are very important to understand about the practice of forgiveness: 1) forgiveness is a particular aim, a goal; 2) forgiveness is an action; 3) forgiveness is acceptance.