Importance Of Rightly Dividing The Word Of God

I had posted this in a thread and it was requested that I make it its own thread.

John 20:21-23 KJV - 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace [be] unto you: as [my] Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.

Every translation has in verse 23 "remit" or "forgiven". The understanding, and wrongfully I might add, is that whomever we forgive they are forgiven and those we don't forgive will not be forgiven. Or maybe we're only to forgive 490 times as Jesus said, Mat 18:22. How ungodly is that? I've stated elsewhere that forgiveness isn't for the offender but for the offended. The word forgive/remit is ἀφέωνταί (apheōntai) and means to send away, cast off.

While I don't like the message bible because of its mistranslations of a lot of verses, I do like this one:

John 20:21-23 MSG The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

What are these verses really saying? Send away the sins of others... from WHO? Yourself. Let's say I make the statement "You're stupid." That would invoke an emotional response right? If you hear it enough times from different people you might even begin to believe it and store it in your heart, even if it were not true. Just like this verse says:

Proverbs 18:8 KJV - 8 The words of a talebearer [are] as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Now, if that feeling sits there for 20 years, you might develop physical ailments, unless we deal with it by sending it away. Now we can read what Jesus said and understand:

Whose soever sins ye send away, they are sent away; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained within you.

What a huge difference in meaning, all because we used the word of God to help understand the word of God, in the original and a dictionary. The problem with the word forgive in English is that is means to excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon. But as the old adage goes, forgive AND forget. Many say they forgive, but they don't deal with the feelings associated with the offense and it sits there festering until they're a grumpy old man (or cat :p). While the word remit, to refrain from exacting (a penalty, for example); cancel, is better, it still gets lost in today's wording. But when we use Pro 18:8we see what offenses do to us. Here's a great read on this: http://www.thekingdomimpact.org/Offences.html

I hope this helps.
 
I have long and long said, forgiveness is a gift you give yourself. If you don't let go of these things, you build anger,hate, bitterness and black emotions that block the true light of God. It drags you back.
 
I've learned that when I don't surrender these feelings of offences, they build up over time. So let's say a young child has a normal temperament, like water, at 33F degrees. As offenses happen, their temper increases to 50F, and as more time goes, 75F. Finally at middle-age they're continuously simmering at 206F. Now the smallest most insignificant event happens and they blow up! Exploding all over those around them. Now their temper is at 216F (water boils at 212F). They calm down and now they're back down to 210F. How much will they need to boil over again? Only 2 degrees, or the slightest insignificant event. This is what happens when we don't resolve our negative feelings. Ever heard of road rage? Seems so many drive at 210F almost waiting for someone to "cut them off!"

Now if that child had learned to send away the offences they experience when it happens, they maybe maintain a temperament of 75F. How much will it take them to boil over? 137F! Meaning a LOT. Which will give them time to think, pray about their situation and surrender to the Lord and send away (forgive) the offences, maintaining their 75F on average.

Read this passage:

2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV)
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all [men], apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

This passage is gold and explains this whole thing. When you are offended and you don't deal with it, you are opposing yourself, just like you said Silk. When we listen to the word of God and send away our offences we repent (change our mind) and acknowledge the truth and we are made free! But free from what? The snare of the devil! His lies! His prison of misunderstanding for which we fight not with flesh and blood, Eph 6:12, but with the armor of God, Eph 6:13.

Glory to God!
 
Forgiveness is not for those who offend us, but for the one who has been offended. Unforgiveness brings torment to the one who does not forgive.

Mat 6:14 For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mat 6:15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. (AMP)

Mat 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
 
I've learned that when I don't surrender these feelings of offences, they build up over time. So let's say a young child has a normal temperament, like water, at 33F degrees. As offenses happen, their temper increases to 50F, and as more time goes, 75F. Finally at middle-age they're continuously simmering at 206F. Now the smallest most insignificant event happens and they blow up! Exploding all over those around them. Now their temper is at 216F (water boils at 212F). They calm down and now they're back down to 210F. How much will they need to boil over again? Only 2 degrees, or the slightest insignificant event. This is what happens when we don't resolve our negative feelings. Ever heard of road rage? Seems so many drive at 210F almost waiting for someone to "cut them off!"

Now if that child had learned to send away the offences they experience when it happens, they maybe maintain a temperament of 75F. How much will it take them to boil over? 137F! Meaning a LOT. Which will give them time to think, pray about their situation and surrender to the Lord and send away (forgive) the offences, maintaining their 75F on average.

Read this passage:

2 Timothy 2:24-26 (KJV)
And the servant of the Lord must not strive; but be gentle unto all [men], apt to teach, patient, In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And [that] they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will.

This passage is gold and explains this whole thing. When you are offended and you don't deal with it, you are opposing yourself, just like you said Silk. When we listen to the word of God and send away our offences we repent (change our mind) and acknowledge the truth and we are made free! But free from what? The snare of the devil! His lies! His prison of misunderstanding for which we fight not with flesh and blood, Eph 6:12, but with the armor of God, Eph 6:13.

Glory to God!

I agree with you but then there is the old adage about those sitting in a church listening to the preacher preach on the sin of ANGER.
Every one in the church shouts AMEN! Then they turn to the person next to them, punch them in the ribs and say........................
"Listen up to this, he is talking to you, NOT ME"!
 
I had posted this in a thread and it was requested that I make it its own thread.

John 20:21-23 KJV - 21 Then said Jesus to them again, Peace [be] unto you: as [my] Father hath sent me, even so send I you. 22 And when he had said this, he breathed on [them], and saith unto them, Receive ye the Holy Ghost: 23 Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained.

Every translation has in verse 23 "remit" or "forgiven". The understanding, and wrongfully I might add, is that whomever we forgive they are forgiven and those we don't forgive will not be forgiven. Or maybe we're only to forgive 490 times as Jesus said, Mat 18:22. How ungodly is that? I've stated elsewhere that forgiveness isn't for the offender but for the offended. The word forgive/remit is ἀφέωνταί (apheōntai) and means to send away, cast off.

While I don't like the message bible because of its mistranslations of a lot of verses, I do like this one:

John 20:21-23 MSG The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: “Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.” Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. “Receive the Holy Spirit,” he said. “If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?”

What are these verses really saying? Send away the sins of others... from WHO? Yourself. Let's say I make the statement "You're stupid." That would invoke an emotional response right? If you hear it enough times from different people you might even begin to believe it and store it in your heart, even if it were not true. Just like this verse says:

Proverbs 18:8 KJV - 8 The words of a talebearer [are] as wounds, and they go down into the innermost parts of the belly.

Now, if that feeling sits there for 20 years, you might develop physical ailments, unless we deal with it by sending it away. Now we can read what Jesus said and understand:

Whose soever sins ye send away, they are sent away; [and] whose soever [sins] ye retain, they are retained within you.

What a huge difference in meaning, all because we used the word of God to help understand the word of God, in the original and a dictionary. The problem with the word forgive in English is that is means to excuse for a fault or an offense; pardon. But as the old adage goes, forgive AND forget. Many say they forgive, but they don't deal with the feelings associated with the offense and it sits there festering until they're a grumpy old man (or cat :p). While the word remit, to refrain from exacting (a penalty, for example); cancel, is better, it still gets lost in today's wording. But when we use Pro 18:8we see what offenses do to us. Here's a great read on this: http://www.thekingdomimpact.org/Offences.html

I hope this helps.

Ya know, like you said, i always thought that these verses in John were talking about forgiving others, like releasing them from their unforgiveness, but when i began to read the verses in the message translation i realized that you are right about it referring to us. Wow what a difference the actual meaning of old words make! Great post! I really enjoyed it!
Blessings!
 
Ya know, like you said, i always thought that these verses in John were talking about forgiving others, like releasing them from their unforgiveness, but when i began to read the verses in the message translation i realized that you are right about it referring to us. Wow what a difference the actual meaning of old words make! Great post! I really enjoyed it!
Blessings!
Thanks :) But I'm not the author of the idea, I got it from Jim Richards and did my own homework. This is when I found out Greek had no punctuation! What a difference it makes.
 
I recall some years back, a prominent South African politician said, I will forgive but I will not forget.
Immediately what came to me was that that is not even forgiveness. God our Father said that He forgives us. I recall "as far as east is from west" and "turns as white as snow". Now this is forgiveness. No account of it is held.
I still made the comment to my family - you cannot say that. Before we flaunt the word forgiveness in open spaces, we need to determine what it means, and there is only one place we can do that - at the altar of the most high God who invented forgiveness.
From that moment I made a rule for myself, to forgive and forget.
And people it works, but only if you involve God in that moment and decision.
 
Thanks :) But I'm not the author of the idea, I got it from Jim Richards and did my own homework. This is when I found out Greek had no punctuation! What a difference it makes.

I was listening to a pastor yesterday, and he made the same remarks. There are places in the Bible that do not originally have punctuation. And it can make all the difference in the world sometimes.
 
I recall some years back, a prominent South African politician said, I will forgive but I will not forget.
Immediately what came to me was that that is not even forgiveness. God our Father said that He forgives us. I recall "as far as east is from west" and "turns as white as snow". Now this is forgiveness. No account of it is held.
I still made the comment to my family - you cannot say that. Before we flaunt the word forgiveness in open spaces, we need to determine what it means, and there is only one place we can do that - at the altar of the most high God who invented forgiveness.
From that moment I made a rule for myself, to forgive and forget.
And people it works, but only if you involve God in that moment and decision.

Did you know that the power to forgive is the same power to heal? And if one does not walk in total love and forgiveness, things just do not go right. I was kind of cranky for a few days, and realized that the things that i was praying about, were just not coming in, so i asked God what was i doing to mess up the flow. He showed me that i was not walking in love and forgiveness. So as i repented and began to get some quiet time back in......i sure do feel a whole lot better! And the rest will fall into place.
Blessings
 
Did you know that the power to forgive is the same power to heal? And if one does not walk in total love and forgiveness, things just do not go right. I was kind of cranky for a few days, and realized that the things that i was praying about, were just not coming in, so i asked God what was i doing to mess up the flow. He showed me that i was not walking in love and forgiveness. So as i repented and began to get some quiet time back in......i sure do feel a whole lot better! And the rest will fall into place.
Blessings
I never thought of it this way, and know what, the gift of healing has been burning in my insides the last number of weeks. See I have prayed for some folk for healing in the past without result, especially my mother in law who has cancer. Maybe the legs on my faith are like match sticks and buckle, so I'm trying to squat bible time and beef it up. [emoji1]
I'll chew on that.
 
I never thought of it this way, and know what, the gift of healing has been burning in my insides the last number of weeks. See I have prayed for some folk for healing in the past without result, especially my mother in law who has cancer. Maybe the legs on my faith are like match sticks and buckle, so I'm trying to squat bible time and beef it up. [emoji1]
I'll chew on that.

Sometimes the mind of the person being prayed for is in the way...thus we have to seek God on how to pray for that person. It may just be going and having a conversation with that person. Or God may have us to pray binding the strongman from their mind that keeps them from receiving.

Beefing up the Bible time is the best idea...God is all powerful, and as we pray according to His will and His Word, then because His Word never returns void, then He who dwells within us does the Works.
Blessings to you!
 
Forgiveness is not for those who offend us, but for the one who has been offended. Unforgiveness brings torment to the one who does not forgive.

Mat 6:14 For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mat 6:15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses. (AMP)

Mat 18:32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
Mat 18:33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Mat 18:34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
Mat 18:35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.

When we walk around in un-forgiveness we limit our prayer life and limit our peace and here is one for you........un-forgiveness is also BLESSING BLOCKER.
 
Back
Top