Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as God forgave you. (Col. 3:13)
The mere fact that we must bear with each other underscores how easily self-centered we can be. We all want others to bear up with us in our weaknesses, but we are reluctant to do the same for others. We forget the golden rule that we do to others what we want them to do to us.
To bear with someone is to accept their weakness and readily stand with them to give help rather than stand as a judge ready to condemn them. When a person acting in weakness offends you, this becomes personal, and this is where God wants us to forgive. There are many reasons believers must extend forgiveness to those who wrong us. One reason our passage for today gives is that God has forgiven us, and therefore, we are obligated to forgive those who wrong us. When we refuse to forgive, we invariably indicate that we do not cherish and appreciate God’s forgiveness of our sins against Him.
