Understanding, Compassion, Love and Forgiveness
(Ephesians 4:31-32)

The one who understands me knows my past and present life. Otherwise, a person cannot be understood based on his or her current circumstances. We will be able to sympathize with, love and forgive others carrying their burdens together only when we have understanding on them. If we see our neighbors as a competitor without understanding, compassion, love, and forgiveness, the relations between us and them are always of condemnation, misunderstanding, hatred and judgment.

1. The relations of neighbor that we always experience
1) Do not judge so as not to be judged.
2) Do not condemn so as not to be condemned. - “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her”
3) Forgive to be forgiven.
4) Criticism and condemnation destroy peace and bring about spilt and quarrel.
2. The church, a gathering of sinners
1) The misunderstanding on the church
① The church is for the righteous.
② It is for the holy.
③ It is the community of love.
2) the church is the place where people who lack something go to.
① People who cannot live without the grace of God.
② People who neither grow up nor be happy by themselves.
③ People who cannot find hope for themselves.
3) the Church is where human beings become corrected and changed.
① Those in the darkness look out for the light.
② The sick looks out for a doctor.
③ Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
④ Jesus also came
⑴ to proclaim good news to the poor ⑵ to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
⑶for recovery of sight for the blind ⑷ to set the oppressed free ⑸ to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor
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3. The Cross and I
1) I get dirty and become slave to darkness through sin.
- The precious blood of the Cross that cleans me and the Cross that shines light on me are something we rely on throughout the whole life.
“I have nothing to be boastful of except for the Cross.”
2) There’s no one to count on except for the grace of the Lord.
- The Lord who bore my weaknesses on the Cross is my only strengths.
We cannot live apart from the grace of the Cross.
3) It is because the Cross is the very place where my life is changed.
- The Lord’s understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and love on the Cross is poured out on me that I become changed and grow taking the resemblance of Jesus.
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Glory without the Cross is another form of yoke. We gain ourselves, a new life, and new hopes under the Cross only.