Reconcile

Reconcile (by guest writer David Peterson)

As part of His great sermon on the mountain Jesus said this, found only in Matthew 5:23-24: Therefore, if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering. Jesus taught that anger is a form of murder in that it is intended to destroy another. With this in mind, Jesus directs us to reconcile with one another even before we offer gifts in worship. This leads to the need to be in right standing with God before it is too late.

Pastor John Piper commented on reconciliation this way; “Can we pray for justice, and yet love our enemy at the same time? The answer is yes …We will magnify the mercy of God by praying for our enemies to be saved and reconciled to God. At the personal level we will be willing to suffer for their everlasting good, and we will give them food and drink. We will put away malicious hatred and private vengeance. But at the public level we will also magnify the justice of God by praying and working for justice to be done on earth, if necessary through wise and measured force from God-ordained authority.”

If reconciliation is the restoration of a relationship to a harmonious state after a dispute, we should seek that with our brothers and sisters on a par as with God himself.

English hymn writer, Michael Kerry wrote “Reconciled, I’m Reconciled” and here is the first stanza;

Reconciled, I’m Reconciled

I’m Reconciled To God For Ever

Know He Took Away My Sin

I Know His Love Will Leave Me Never

Reconciled, I Am His Child

I Know It Was On Me He Smiled

I’m Reconciled, I’m Reconciled To God

Hallelujah!

His joy comes from his reconciliation through Christ taking away his sin.

Let us pray: Forgiving Jesus, teach us humility in order to see how we have hurt one another and then to restore our relationships through reconciliation. Amen.