Love and Forgiveness!

For Saturday, July 8, 2023:

James 5:16 NLT: “Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.”

The Bible says that all have sinned, so we all have a little confessing to do. We are to confess to God and to our fellows. Today’s question looks at the other side: What should our response be when someone in our fellowship confesses?

We are to pray that they would be healed, that they would be protected from Satan and that they would be empowered to turn their life around, doing a 180 away from sin and coming back closer to God. Follow Jesus’ doctrine of ‘loving your neighbor.’ Help your fellow heal and reconcile. Jesus oftentimes declined to condemn the sinner, simply telling them to go and sin no more.

Read your Bibles – Jesus never sought revenge or punishment. In fact that was the root of his disagreement with the Pharisees. They knew all of God’s Commandments, and their mission had become enforcement, catching someone making a mistake. Jesus didn’t have much time for the Pharisees.

Jesus’ mission was love and forgiveness!

Pastor Norton Lawellin

Jesus in the City Fellowship