To Fight or To Forgive

Social media has taken over our lives!
We send a SnapChat when we get ice-cream. #brainfreeze
We post selfies on Instagram and wait with great anticipation to see who "likes" our photos. #hangingwithmybestie
We blab to our Facebook friends about our personal problems then can't understand why people are gossiping about us. #thestruggleisreal
We Tweet about the concert we just attended.  "Epic night…Pentatonix Kelly Clarkson rocked it" #datenight

It's all in great fun…until it's not.

I recently had the unfortunate opportunity to watch as a friendship unravelled on social media. Harsh comments were made. Indirect cries for attention were posted on walls, and finally a public "Dear John" kind of Facebook post ended what once had been a beautiful friendship with so much potential. My heart broke for all parties involved. 

I wanted to cry out, "Stop! Please, you don't know what you are doing!" In 2 Corinthians 2, Paul is dealing with members of the church about how to heal broken friendships and how to react when someone hurts you.  Verse 7 has this to say.  "Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement. So I urge you to reaffirm your love for him." What would our marriages look like, what power would our churches have, what strong friendships could be forged, if we were willing to put our own feelings aside and choose love and forgiveness? God is in the restoration business; yet we, his children, tear each other down when we get our feelings hurt. 

Paul goes on to tell us that he has watched and tested the congregation to see if they would respond correctly to their differences. Then in verse 10 and 11 he tells his people that it is only by God's grace that he can forgive just as he has taught them to forgive.  He also makes a strong declaration about who the real enemy is and what damage their unforgiving attitude has caused. ("…when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit. So that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his schemes.") When someone hurts us and we retaliate instead of choosing to forgive, we strengthen Satan's attacks against us. When we wear our feelings on our sleeves, we are not allowing the Holy Spirit to guide our lives. Paul is not saying it is easy to make these choices. He is saying it is the right thing to do and he chooses to forgive because Christ has forgiven him and because he chooses to consider others first. It's a choice we make - a choice with eternal repercussions. 

Friends don't let friends toy with the enemy. 

Friends fight together against a common enemy, not against each other.

Let's forgive each other, so that the enemy doesn't have his way in our own lives.

Let's forgive others, because it is eternally beneficial.

~ All Scripture from NLT