TEXT: MATT. 6:14; EPH. 4:32

''For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you''

''And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.''

The church militant and triumphant, is but a company of forgiven and forgiving men and women. Heaven is a home of the forgiven and those who have cancelled men's debt against themselves: none who is not forgiven and forgiving can see the kingdom of glory. What the church has received from Christ, that she is bound to give to the world. The forgiveness given to us by Christ, is a taking argument and persuasive for our responsibility to forgive others. See what God has forgiven us: many a slip in memory, evil thought, slighting tongue and many sins of omission and commission; should we then not forgive our fellow men in the same breath? We act like Christ, when we forgive others their sins against us. No man dare ask Christ for amnesty, with whom neighbours cannot secure pardon. unforgiveness in the heart, makes it unhabitable for Christ: and where Christ cannot stay, no good thing can come therein. He lives with demons, who lives with a grudge! Freeing others of their offences against us, is like letting in beams of the sun into a dark castle: for until we forgive others, our darkness reigns and light remains to us a distant neighbour. Friends, no offence harms the saints, that does not damn the soul. Nothing harms that does not damn. Oh soul of mine, see all your debts that stands canceled by Christ, let them frame fine and forgiving disposition in you that frees others from their debt to you. He is heavenly, that forgives. Let us be 'kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.' Amen!

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Ojoje Adeyi