Forgiving Others: A Lesson from the Early Church.
by Jimmy Humphrey
Before the conversion of the apostle, Paul was a Christian killer. Paul was a zealous adherent of Pharisaical Judaism, which had a no-tolerance policy towards those professed faith in Jesus Christ as the Messiah. Jewish followers of Christ were considered blasphemers, and worthy of death. As we read about in the book of Acts, it was not long after the day of Pentecost before the early Church began to suffer persecution. The Jews were so outraged over the witness of the early Church that they broke Roman law, and illegally executed Stephen by means of stoning. Participating with the mob that made Stephen a martyr was Saul of Tarsus, who from that moment on began to militantly wage war against the early Church.
But as Saul’s mission was growing, Jesus Christ took hold of his life when He appeared to him on the road to Damascus. “Saul became Paul.” His conversion to the faith was a radical one. He went from killing Christians to preaching Christ and making disciples. This of course, is a story that we as Christians are all very familiar with. It is perhaps the greatest conversion story recorded in the history of the Church, and is something we as a Church have celebrated for nearly 2,000 years.
The Unforgiving Situation
But therein lies a problem. The story is perhaps too familiar to us, and is something we don’t think about too often. Indeed, it seems perhaps scales have formed over our eyes, which have made us blind to the radical nature of what transpired in those days. You see, as I stated previously, the apostle Paul before his conversion was a Christian killer. He was somebody who broke into the homes of Christians and dragged them off to prison, all while they peacefully gathered with their families, breaking bread, and teaching about the Lord. Saul absolutely terrorized the Church in his day. One could say he waged “Jihad” against it.
Saul was a monster of a man. He was a man who early Christians would have prayed for, but avoided at all costs. If you lived in Jerusalem at the time, and were a Christian, you would not have been safe wherever you were. Could you imagine living in a state where you were aware that a simple trip to the grocery store might cost you your life? Could you imagine living in a state where you might be forcibly dragged from your home in the middle of the night, simply for being a Christian?
Indeed, many Christians could not tolerate the conditions in Jerusalem, and began to flee for the safety of other cities. But when Saul realized this was happening, he received authority from the high priest to pursue Christians wherever they might be, which is why “breathing threats and murder” (Acts 9:2) we find Paul on the road traveling to the city of Damascus to stomp out Christianity wherever it might be found. No doubt, Saul was the face and poster child of the movement that was persecuting the Church. If you were a Christian and saw Saul walking down the street, you would have become frozen stiff. To see him would have been the equivalent of a Jew seeing Adolf Hitler walking down the streets of Nazi Germany.
Did you ever think about Saul in this way? Do you believe this is an accurate portrait of who Saul was, and what it would have been like to be a Christian living in his shadow every day? Now imagine if things were like this then, how would you have felt when all of a sudden this very man showed up in the middle of a Church service, claiming to now be a Christian? Indeed, after the conversion of Saul, he began to try and fellowship with the Church at Jerusalem, in the very city where Stephen had been stoned to death just months before. Like many Christians then, you probably would have run away, just like every time they used to when they saw Saul standing at their doorstep. Indeed, we read:
When he came to Jerusalem, he was trying to associate with the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, not believing that he was a disciple. (Acts 9:26)
Though the Church had heard of the conversion of Saul, and how he was now preaching the gospel, there was reluctance amongst Christians to accept this as anything else but a trick. It all sounded too good to be true. They thought Saul was a just Trojan horse in the making. They kept expecting that at any moment, the old Saul was going to jump out, and begin to slay them all over again. It was a risk they were not willing to take. They just could not accept him. And none would accept him, with the exception for one man by the name of Barnabas.
An Act of Forgivenss
But Barnabas took hold of him and brought him to the apostles and described to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had talked to him, and how at Damascus he had spoken out boldly in the name of Jesus. (Acts 9:27)
As historical of a moment as the conversion of Saul on the road to Damascus was, this act of forgiveness that Barnabas was so bold to commit, is of equal importance in Church history. Without this single act of forgiveness, whereby Barnabas risked his own skin to take Saul by the hand, Saul could have never become the apostle Paul. There would have never been a letter to the Romans, Corinthians, or any other Church that the apostle Paul wrote to. Our New Testament would be a much smaller book. No doubt, Paul would have gone on to fulfill his call, and to testify of the risen Lord Jesus Christ to nations and Kings. But were it not for the boldness of Barnabas, Paul would never have become the blessing to us that he became. You and I might not even be Christians today if it were not for this one act.
For, in the story of Saul on the road to Damascus, we not only read about the conversion of a single man, but we are also reading about the “conversion” of a Church. It was a risky thing to forgive Saul. Not only that, but it would have been hard to forgive him. Assuming Stephen’s parents were Christians, could you imagine having Church while sitting next to the very man that was responsible for the death of your very son? Forgiving Saul for the awful things he did would have required one to undergo such a death to self, and such a yielding of oneself to the Lord, that it would have been like getting saved all over again. The Church went from fearing and fleeing from Saul, to embracing him as a brother and sending him out as an apostle. This ain’t kids stuff.
The Theology of Forgiveness
Ultimately, the Church was made up of a people who realized that their Master had forgiven them their sin debt, and knew they could not hold others in debt for their sins against them. Because Christ has forgiven us, we should forgive each other (Ephesians 4:32) Realizing they were the recipients of mercy, they realized they must now show the same mercy richly towards others. It was a risky venture. Paul could have been a Trojan horse. Forgiving and loving others is always risky business, but it is a business the Church should excel at.
When we have been hurt, letting our guard down and allowing ourselves to be open to being hurt all over again can be a frightening thing. But if we fail to do such, we ultimately rob ourselves of the blessing God wants to bestow on us. No doubt, had the early Church kept its guard up with Saul, it would have robbed not only itself, but future generations of the many treasures this man has since passed down to even our day. But the Church let its guard down to Saul, and the world has never been the same since.
You see, in our refusing to forgive others, we may feel we are protecting ourselves by doing such, but in reality, we are only imprisoning ourselves, and limiting what God can do in our lives. There is no freedom in that. We may have just cause for why we hunker down like turtles in our shells. But turtles never go anywhere very fast, do they? And when they do go anywhere, they go there very slowly. Their shell may protect them from a lot of things, and they may live a really long time as a result. But they are hard, and don’t do very much, do they?
Brothers and sisters, let us not be turtles. Let us not be hard and weighed down by unforgiving spirits. Let us not be so defensive. Instead, let us have the attitude of Barnabas, and be willing to take the Saul’s of our lives by the hand, and lead them so that they might become the people God would have them to become, not only for their sake, but for our sake as well. Let us learn from this amazing, though sometimes forgotten story in the history of the Church.
All of us have been hurt by somebody at sometime. Some have been hurt by others financially, others emotionally, and yet others physically. Some of us have been robbed. Some of us have been molested. Some of us have gone through bitter divorces. There are so many different areas of our lives where we all as human beings have been wronged. As a result, we’ve become thick-skinned, cynical, hard-hearted, and bitter. We’ve become weighed-down turtles, crawling through life.
Those things aren’t blessings though, are they? They sound more like curses to me. Jesus didn’t give us these things, did He? I believe these things ultimately have their origins in hell. For Jesus has given us love, joy, and peace in the Holy Spirit. But such is only available to us when we are walking in a spirit of forgiveness. Such is only available to us when we take our guards down, and put our hearts and lives on the line. Such may make us open to being hurt again. But when an unforgiving spirit begins to make us rotten and unfruitful, which pain would you rather experience? The pain somebody inflicts on you, or the pain you continually inflict upon yourself? When you have the inability to forgive, you become a salve. But when you have the ability to forgive, you become free.
Forgiveness never happens by accident though. It is something you and I must deliberately do, and it is a gift we must give to somebody. “Give” is at the center of for-give-ness. Barnabas didn’t just accidentally take Saul by the hand and present him before the apostles. Rather, it was the deliberate act of a man who had so died to self, that should Saul have turned on Barnabas and slain him, it would have mattered little to Barnabas, as Barnabas was already dead to himself the moment he reached out to Saul.
The Power of Forgiveness
And what was the outcome of Barnabas’ act of forgiveness to Saul? The cosmos were so moved by the Church’s acceptance of Saul, that in Acts 9:31 we read that the Church in all of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria enjoyed peace. Their ability to forgive and accept Saul so radically transformed everything, with the result that the Church ceased to suffer persecution for a season. The book of Acts doesn’t state it specifically, but I believe we can infer from the record that the Church’s acceptance of Saul demonstrated a witness to the Jews that was so powerful, that it effectively put out the fire of their persecutors. Indeed, it seems to have served as an occasion for many to come to the faith, as Acts 9:31 says the Church “continued to increase.” And how could it do anything but increase, after such an awesome witness?
For the Jews would have realized there was a reality to this forgiveness stuff, as the Church was willing to demonstrate forgiveness towards its chief persecutor. How could a people be so loving and so forgiving to others who had so deeply wronged them, unless such a people were the personal recipients God’s own forgiveness? And how could they be such a people, unless what they said was true, that Jesus Christ had died for their sins, and was alive forever more? That is the apparent conclusion they reached through witnessing the Church, and its ability to forgive. And you know what? If we ourselves were to be such a forgiving people, we just might win many to the Lord as well. We might even provoke the Jews to "jealousy" in our own generation. For the world will see that His forgiving us has made such a difference in our lives, that we have the ability to forgive others. Including Christian killers, like Saul of Tarsus.