Mark Galli, former editor at Christianity Today, now manages of personal blog called “Peripheral Vision.” His most recent post is titled, “What to Do
with Notorious Sinners: Maybe Befriend Them? Really?”
It is a fine post which I repost here because the church struggles with implementing Jesus’ teaching on this subject.
Of course confession, repentance and a request for forgiveness are important components in the overal process of personal forgiveness. But the radical — and I mean RADICAL — nature of Jesus’ teaching on the necessity of forgiveness cannot be sidestepped by the seemingly reasonable, psychological provisos that so easily qualify the Christian imperative of forgiveness.
Sit down and reread one of the Synoptic Gospels and notice how often Jesus emphasizes the importance of forgiving others with the same graciousness with which God has forgiven us.
I am afraid that, on this score, we regularly lose sight of just how unbelievably radical is the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Here is an excerpt of Galli’s article:
A friend has committed a grave sin, and even broken the law—let’s say by having sex with a minor. We may find it morally reprehensible even to remain friends, especially if we have a teenage daughter. We may wonder if continuing the friendship will signal indifference to what the offender has done. Or we simply may be confused about how to reach out. In the end, we may not make a conscious decision to reject the offender, but we simply don’t reach out, we don’t stay in touch, we just slowly walk away from that relationship.
That response is understandable—we’ve all done it. But at this personal level, here’s the deal: Though God lets sinners walk away from him, he never walks away from sinners. (my emphasis)
You can read the entire article here.
