Matthew 5:23-24
“If therefore you are offering your gift at the altar, and there remember that your brother has anything against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.
I know when I am not in good relationships with someone because I feel they have done me wrong, but how do I know when someone has something against me?
In the verse before these the Lord Jesus had been speaking about the seriousness of being angry with one’s brother and now He is basically saying that if you have offended your brother it would be useless to worship God by bringing Him a gift.
I want to chat about offences and rifts as emotional condition that hinders the move and intervention of God. Please freely contribute.
Matthew 18:15 “Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother.”
Well, when I feel my brother/ sister had sinned against me or is sining against me! I will call him/her and deal with it.
A heart free of offense is required to relate to God, whether we are the guilty or innocent party in the offense.
In the Lord’s prayer we read: “Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us!” for the first year of my Christian life, I always put “Not as we forgive those trespass against us”
I read an article recently, “Forgive us our trespasses: forbidden rambles with a right-to-roam campaigner”
The writer was careful to define what trespass is. He explained that trespass is a mechanism for seeking redress for damage. When we hold offenses in our heart we are seeking redress or revenge. And often our actions are to withdraw our affection and care for the person we think has offended us.
In Matthew 22:37-39 Jesus himself said, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ “
Matthew 7:12 – So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.
Shana wrote that
“Offense is more than just being angry. It’s more than being hurt. Offense is holding onto a grudge, nursing bitterness, and allowing the wrong to change your heart condition and contaminate your emotions and thinking.”
In Proverbs 19:11 the bible says, “The discretion of a man deferreth his anger; and it is his glory to pass over a transgression.”
In ESV it reads:
Good sense makes one slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook an offense.
Answered prayer demands a right relationship with God and with others.
“A conscience void of offence” is important. Acts 24:16. Psalm 66:18. 1 Peter 3:7, James 5:16.
The psalmist says that “If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me” It is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man avail much!
1 Peter 3:7 example is good! “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers.”
Author
kay.alli@legalview.co.uk