“So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you. 23. Leave your gift at the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother (or sister), and then come offer your gift.” ESV (I added the parenthesis.)
I realize that I am coming into the middle of something, but I saw something in this text that is very important in our lives. It is tempting to explain the whole thing about “offering gifts at the altar,” but I am not going to do that. What I want to concentrate on are these words: “First be reconciled to your brother (sister) and then come offer your gift.” The importance of being reconciled to your brother/sister is that God will not receive your gift at the altar until you do. I don’t know what “brother” or “sister” you need to be reconciled with today. It might be someone in your family that you are out of sorts with, or it might be someone at your workplace, or someone in your church, etc. What I want you to see is no matter who it is that you need to be reconciled to, it is important for you to take the initiative to do it. Look at the wording in the text: “…and there remember that your brother has something against you.” It is up to you to seek reconciliation. A word that is not used in the text, but is certainly implied, is “forgiveness.” You cannot be reconciled to your brother or sister until you have forgiven him or her. Jesus pointed this out in the model prayer in Matthew 6:12: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The little conjunction “as” is important. The American Century Dictionary defines it when used as a conjunction: “…to the extent to which is or does….” Your reconciliation with your brother or sister will take place to the extent of which you take the initiative. It doesn’t matter what the offence is, you need to take the initiative. Jesus did not say that it would be easy to do this, He just said to do it. Reconciliation is important to you, because you need to be reconciled to everybody in your life. You might be thinking right now that Brother Joe has completely lost his mind. But Jesus did not leave any “wiggle room.” Another word that is not used in the text is “peace.” You will not have the peace that you want until you have forgiven everyone that you need to forgive and have been reconciled to your brothers and sisters. But you might be thinking: “Brother Joe, you don’t know how badly he or she hurt me…” Again, Jesus did not take that into account. If you want the peace that only Jesus can give, forgive, forgive, forgive and be reconciled to your brothers and sisters. Reconciliation is important to you, because you cannot be fully right with God until you are reconciled to your brothers and sisters. This does not mean that God doesn’t love you anymore. This does not mean that God has “washed His hands” of you. It doesn’t even mean that God can’t use you. What it does mean is that none of that will be real and powerful in your life until you reach down deep in your soul and forgive those people in your life that you need to forgive and are reconciled with them. You know intrinsically that things are not right with God when you are holding a grudge against someone. Lest you think me glib on this matter, be assured that as I have written this, I have been going through my own mind and heart, attemtpting to assure myself that I have been reconciled to everyone in my life. It doesn’t matter whether they are reconciled to me, or to you. What matters is that we are reconciled to them. We cannot please everybody and everybody will probably not be pleased with us, but if we are at peace in our hearts and minds, we not only feel better, we are better human beings. This is important for Christians if we want to witness to the world about the Savior who forgave them and us from the cross. Give this some serious thought today and do it. Bro. Joe
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AuthorDr. Joe Beauchamp is the author of this blog and website. Categories
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