Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. – Colossians 3:13 (NLT)
Have you gotten offended? Maybe it’s the lunch lady who always seems to give you the worst hamburger. Or your teacher who you know has it out for you and gives you the worst assignments and grades. Maybe a friend told a secret and now you’re upset because you feel you can’t trust them anymore.
It’s so easy to get offended in life. There’s nothing wrong with getting offended, it happens to everyone. What’s important is how you handle the offense. Do you let yourself get upset and bitter? Do you try to get revenge or complain to everyone who will listen about how you were wronged?
Today’s Bible verse is really a challenge to how our culture handles offenses. Getting revenge is glorified. Going on a major social media rant is justified. Yet in spite of how most people handle offenses, as Christians, we are challenged to handle them differently.
We’re told to forgive if we’ve been wronged and to make allowances for other people’s faults. This can seem almost like an impossible task. However, as this Bible verse points out, we’ve been forgiven by God, so we can forgive others.
So today, if someone has offended you, decide to forgive. Decide to not hold it against them but to love them with the God kind of love.
