“So do this, my son, to free yourself, since you have fallen into your neighbor’s hands: Go—to the point of exhaustion— and give your neighbor no rest!”
This chapter is specifically dealing with the sin of adultery. I’m fairly confident no one reading this devotion is unaware of how serious that sin is to both God and Kingdom people. Addressing it is paramount to a person’s survival both spiritually and in many cases within their community. I’ve known people who engaged in adultery and been restored to fellowship through repentance and reconciliation. However, though spotless before God after confession and repentance, they never seem to fully achieve all that was available prior to the sin. That was the case with King David. After Bathsheba he was never used as powerfully again. The bigger issue in this truth is that all sin keeps us from God’s best for our lives until we confront it. Once we confess and repent God freely forgives and restores. However the stain or shame of public sin lingers. Clearly God forgives completely but as Matthew Poole says, “the reproach and scandal of it remains.” When the lost come to Christ there is a recognition that lost people live like the lost. When believers fall into dark public sin and the world witnesses, often celebrates and does not want to let it go. It is incumbent on Kingdom people to live like God’s children and all believers need to respond to repentance the way our Heavenly Father does. Today forgive and embrace a restored fellow believer. #BeTheEdge
“So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them.” Jesus
