Colossians 3:9-13 NLT
(9) Don't lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.
(10) Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like Him.
(11) In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and He lives in all of us.
(12) Since God chose you to be the holy people He loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience.
(13) Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.
When someone lies to you because of shameful sin how do you react? When that person's actions dishonor you or your family what should you say? Often what you want to say or do is not what you should say or do. How do you forgive the person without condoning the sin? How do you love them without pretending what they did was of no consequence? When a person has responded by lying and that reaction has become a life-style what does that say about the parent? Did the parent fail? Was the child unteachable because of ill feelings harbored inside? Remember both have fallen short and both are human. How does God see a life that refuses to submit to His authority? What does God say about an unrepentant sin? Can that person expect God's blessings in their life or the work of their hands?
These questions lead but to one answer – we know that everyone has fallen short of the glory of God because of what the Bible tells us in Romans 3:23 NLT (23) “For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God's glorious standard.” And we know because of what Jesus taught we are unable to point a finger at one without first condemning ourselves, because of our own broken nature. Look at John 8:7 and Matthew 18:32-35. We also know that God is holy and just and not defiled by sin and impurity, just look at what the Old Testament priests had to do in order to prepare to be in His presence (Leviticus chapter 16). We also know that God is the same yesterday, today, and for eternity, that's why we can only come before Him through what Jesus, the Christ, did for us on the cross – He has paid our sins with His own life so that we might live BUT we have to humbly confess Him as Lord and Savior (1 John 1:9). It's not enough to believe that Jesus lived and died but we must take up our cross and follow Him, love Him, and obey the leading of His Holy Spirit if we are to have eternal life. It is because of these things that we are to forgive, understanding our own desperate situation, knowing that God loves the person who has acted shamefully or even continues to do so just as much as He loves the one who is obedient (Luke 15:11-32) and those who feel self-righteous should be warned God's wrath is kindled against you just like the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18. So treading lightly knowing we are to forgive, understanding just how much we have been forgiven. We are to pray for this person so God's presence might be known by them and that He might bring about conviction so that this person's life might change to one that honors Him, and we are to love them by loving and honoring God in our own lives before them, knowing that God is good all the time and cares more than we can comprehend.
