Our Daily Bread -- Outlasting Bitterness

READ: Colossians 3:12-17

If anyone has a complaint against another; even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. —Colossians 3:13

During the Second World War, Corrie ten Boom’s family owned a watchmaking business in the Netherlands, and they actively worked to protect Jewish families. Eventually, the entire ten Boom family was sent to a concentration camp, where Corrie’s father died 10 days later. Her sister Betsie also died in the camp. While Betsie and Corrie were in the camp together, Betsie’s faith helped to strengthen Corrie’s.

That faith led Corrie to forgive even the ruthless men who served as guards during her concentration camp days. While hate and the desire for revenge continued to destroy many lives long after the concentration camps were gone, Corrie knew the truth: Hate hurts the hater more than the hated, no matter how justified it may seem.

Like Corrie, we each have the opportunity to love our enemy and choose forgiveness. Forgiveness doesn’t excuse the offense but when we forgive we show Christ to the world. “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph.4:32).

God will help you let go of every angry grudge as you watch the Spirit build into you a place where others see the Savior. —Randy Kilgore

The love of God within our hearts
Enables us to show
Forgiveness that is undeserved
So others too might know. —Sper

When we forgive someone, we look more like Jesus than at any other moment in our life.

Insight

Paul’s letter to the Colossians was one of four letters Paul wrote while being held as a prisoner in Rome. These four letters, commonly called “The Prison Epistles,” consist of Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon. The church letters went to three different destinations in two different regions of the ancient world. Philippians was directed to the church at Philippi, a city in Macedonia (ancient northern Greece), while Ephesians and Colossians were written to two cities (Ephesus, Colosse) in Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The personal letter to Philemon was also delivered to Colosse, where Philemon is believed to have lived, being actively involved in the church there. These letters were probably intended to be circular letters that were read and passed along to other churches.