True forgiveness shows grace and mercy at the same time. There is an interesting Greek word, epieikes, that means “forbearance” or “tolerance.” It comes from a root word that means the opposite of being unduly rigorous. In Hellenistic literature, Aristotle contrasted it with severely judging. The idea was: do not make a rigorous stand against your enemy even when you are clearly in the right. Graciousness is shown by what you don’t say, even if what you could say would be true. In Philippians 4:5 this word is translated “gentleness.” It comes down to our English word graciousness. It implies
True forgiveness shows grace and mercy at the same time. There is an interesting Greek word, epieikes, that means “forbearance” or “tolerance.” It comes from a root word that means the opposite of being unduly rigorous. In Hellenistic literature, Aristotle contrasted it with severely judging. The idea was: do not make a rigorous stand against your enemy even when you are clearly in the right. Graciousness is shown by what you don’t say, even if what you could say would be true. In Philippians 4:5 this word is translated “gentleness.” It comes down to our English word graciousness. It implies an exceedingly rare act of grace. It cuts right across a legalistic spirit, which is what comes naturally to most of us. This concept is quite threatening to those of us who don’t suffer fools gladly, who feel that being inflexible for the truth is the ultimate virtue. Paul used this word in the context of a family squabble in Philippi: “I plead with Euodia and I plead with Syntyche to agree with each other in the Lord” (Phil. 4:2). If only each of them had been gracious. Both had strong personalities, and each probably had a following; each side was sure that they were right, and each wanted the other to look bad. “Try graciousness,” says Paul. It is an unusual virtue. Gracious is a word that described Jesus all the time. When a group of self-righteous religious leaders led a woman to Jesus who was found in the act of adultery, there was no question that sin had taken place. But what ...
...more
This highlight has been truncated due to consecutive passage length restrictions.
