Key Scripture
“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.” — Colossians 3:13 (ESV)
Devotional Reflection
When you hear the word forgiveness, what comes to mind?
For some, it means forgetting the offense and moving on as if nothing happened.
For others, it means pretending they are no longer hurt.
Some believe forgiveness means excusing harmful behavior or immediately restoring a broken relationship.
Others fear that forgiving someone means allowing that person to “get away with it.”
No wonder forgiveness feels impossible.
Many of us have been trying to do something God never asked us to do.
That is why understanding what forgiveness really means is so important.
In Colossians 3:13, Paul writes:
“Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”
Notice that Paul assumes something about life:
People will hurt one another.
He speaks of complaints because relationships involve imperfect people. In a broken world, misunderstandings happen. Words wound. Trust is broken. Expectations are disappointed. The need for forgiveness is not the exception to human relationships—it is part of living among people who, like us, are flawed and fallen.
But Paul also points us to the pattern of forgiveness:
“As the Lord has forgiven you…”
Before forgiveness is something we give, it is something we receive.