Kind and Forgiving

Transcript

Hello, my friend… so glad you're with me today. This is By God's Call — day 40, Kind and Forgiving.

Ephesians 4:32 — let this land where it needs to land: "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you."

As God in Christ forgave you. That is the standard. Not the standard we set — the standard of the gospel.

I want you to feel the weight of that before we go any further. There is someone — maybe the name already came to you just now — someone who owes you something. A word that cut deep. A betrayal that never quite healed. A disappointment you've been carrying quietly, not mentioning it to anyone. And Paul walks in and says: forgive. As God in Christ forgave you.

That's a lot. I know it is.

But stay with me here for a moment.

One verse before this one, Paul lists what has to go: bitterness, rage, brawling, slander. He is not asking you to lay kindness over the top of all that like a coat of paint over rotting wood. No. He is saying: take that off. Now put kindness on instead. Kindness doesn't decorate the heart — it replaces what was destroying it. It moves in where the bitterness used to live.

And notice this. The text says "forgiving one another" — and that phrase already assumes something: that you will need it again. That I will need it. That Christian community doesn't survive because people are perfect, but because grace moves in both directions. You forgive. You receive forgiveness. And it is that circulation of grace — back and forth, over and over — that keeps everything alive.

Now, the measure. Paul doesn't say "forgive what you can manage" or "forgive when it seems fair." He says: as God in Christ forgave you. That is the benchmark. And if you have ever sat quietly and thought about what it took to forgive you — what it cost, what was required — then you know that what anyone else owes you is small by comparison. Forgiveness flows out of us when we truly understand how much has flowed into us.

Paul had also warned, just verses before: don't let the sun go down on your anger. Because resentment that sleeps through the night wakes up stronger. It compounds. It collects interest in your heart without you noticing — stealing your rest, poisoning your relationships, slowly dimming the light inside you.

So forgive fast. Not because it's easy. But because you are free to do it. Because you were forgiven first.

And today — today, my friend — I want to invite you to do one thing. Just one. Name one debt you are still holding. It doesn't have to be the biggest one. It might be the one you've almost forgotten, but that still stings when you remember it. Cancel that debt before God this morning. Talk to Him about it. Tell Him: "Lord, I'm letting this go." And then, before the day is done, mark that decision with one kind gesture toward that person — or toward someone near them. Something small. Something real. Something that seals on the outside what you settled on the inside.

That is not weakness. That is the most courageous thing a human heart can do.

Stay close to God. Pray — then act. I'll see you tomorrow, my friend.