Ministry

Ministry Message

"For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses."  Matthew 6:14-15 ESV

"Forgive each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you." Ephesians 4:32

This term at Endeavour College, we are committed to focus on one of our core values, forgiveness. For some, it might be relatively easy to talk about Forgiveness, but no one finds the act of forgiving easy. Often when we think about forgiveness there are many opposing thoughts that come to mind like "Forgive them? I can't." "They make me so mad." "You just don't know what they did to me."

What we have been trying to learn this term is that true forgiveness is only achievable with God’s help.

The first thing that we learn from Matthew 6 is that forgiveness is not an option. Matthew very strongly and boldly tells his recipients that if they want to be forgiven by God, they also need to forgive others. It is important to clearly understand what Matthew says and what he does not say. These words might come across to some as though God was only ready to forgive us when we first deal with our hearts resentments and bitterness; that if we need to first deal with our heart’s unforgiveness before we can even approach God to receive forgiveness. In the light of other passages of scripture, this is not what Matthew says. He does not rest God’s forgiveness on our ability to forgive, but rather emphasises the fact that the experience of God’s forgiveness enables us to forgive others.

We can see it for example in the book to Ephesians Chapter 4 Verse 32, where the Apostal Paul calls us to forgive because we are already forgiven by God. God does not grant us forgiveness with the measure of forgiveness that we have already given to others, but rather he expects us to forgive because by his grace he has already forgiven us all our wrong doings.

It is God’s undeserving forgiveness that he lavished on us, that enables us to forgive others. We are only able to forgive because we were first forgiven by God.

As the whole community of Endeavour College, our opportunity of growing in forgiveness this term cannot come from trying harder but from growing deeper in our understanding of the forgiving love of God. 

Charlie Tatera

Lay Chaplain