Why Are We Commanded to Forgive Each Other?

Pastor Ben Diaz

Hello Church Family!

This week at Vida Church, Pastor Ben continued our current series talking about the differences between relationships and religion.

It is so easy for us to get caught up in the "things" that Christians do. And if it's not clearly taught or understood, then we will start doing things that we don't fully understand because "that's what Christians do." Think about it, why do we say hallelujah? Why do we say amen? Everything we do is rooted in biblical doctrine, but because we don't talk about it, we lose the power behind it.

So in this message, Pastor Ben shows us why we say those things. Why do we start worship with praise? Why do we pray? We need to make sure that we have a real understanding of why we do what we do. But more than what we do, we need to remember who we are.

Our old selves have died with Christ, and now we have been raised to NEW LIFE in Him. We are under a completely new covenant now, and we are empowered to live a righteous life. Pastor Ben reminded us that since we have been forgiven, we can also freely forgive others. When we received salvation, we gave up our right to hold onto unforgiveness. God has called us to a higher standard as His children. 

But where the world gets this wrong is thinking that we have to do those things to hold onto our salvation, when the reality is that we can forgive one another because we have already been forgiven. We act this way because we want to be like the one who forgave us. We want to look and act like our heavenly Father, who loved and forgave us first. We want to act as His representatives on earth.

There is so much more to this message. Click here to listen to the full sermon! Have a blessed week. We hope to see you on Sunday.