“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Colossians 3: 12-14 (NLT)

It was one of the beautiful evenings that I remembered from our marriage counselling sessions. The wife telephoned and just said she needed to talk because she has reached the end of the road there is no point talking her out of divorce. It was a long day at work and we were tired, but when someone needs your support, you must give, so we asked them to come over. They arrived about 8:00pm and as they walked through the door I felt the tension, and they made the hatred for one another very tangible, you can almost touch it.

“Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.” Matthew 12:25 (NIV)

How can we as a church, city or household be divided against ourselves? Paul was writing to the Corinthian church and in his letter he was appealing with them to grow up spiritually and to stop acting like mere infants, fighting and arguing amongst themselves. In verse 3 of 1 Corinthians 3 he says,” For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?” The Amplified version says, “For you are still [unspiritual, having the nature] of the flesh [under the control of ordinary impulses]. For as long as [there are] envying and jealousy and wrangling and factions among you, are you not unspiritual and of the flesh, behaving yourselves after a human standard and like mere (unchanged) men?”

If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent. 8 For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath. Matthew 12:7-8 (NIV)

Jesus never condemns us! John 3:17 says that, ‘God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through Him might be saved.’ It is such a terrible weight to feel condemned by anyone and I so love how Jesus demonstrated His love, mercy and saving power with the woman who had been caught in the act of adultery in John 8:3-11. The woman was brought to Him to be stoned, according to the law of Moses, by the scribes and pharisees. Jesus responded to her accusers saying, he that is without sin among them should cast the first stone. They all left and Jesus loved her saying in John 8:11, “Neither do I condemn thee: go and sin no more.” Jesus will always forgive every sin.