The Lesson Learned

The Lesson Learned

And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.

And he kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Matthew 6:12; Acts 7:60

The disciples of Christ learned from Him. They ‘caught’ what He ‘taught’ by seeing Him in action. As He did, so they learned to do. Stephen, the first recorded martyr of the New Testament era of the church had preached powerfully and in doing so, had aroused the hatred of the highly religious organizers of the execution of Christ. These self-righteous religionists were so violent in their opposition to the preaching of Christ that they stoned Stephen to death. Stephen, for his part, demonstrates the same spirit of forgiveness as had Christ, his example. He is entirely disposed to forgive. He prays for these who are stoning him, and as Christ did, refers them to God the Father to address. He does not subvert the process of repentance and faith, but demonstrates the same spirit as Christ demonstrated. This is good for us to see and to understand. By observing Christ, and those who caught His spirit, we may come to understand how we ourselves may learn to do. Under all circumstances and conditions we learn our patterns of behavior from Christ and from those who most closely imitate Him. All of these lessons stand us in good stead in our praying and in our practice. They are included in the thoughts with which we approach the Throne of Grace. So we pray, ‘And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.’

Our Gracious Living Savior,
we rejoice that You have clearly taught us
by Your Own Great Example.
We praise You that You have given us grace, thus far,
to live and that You will give us grace to die.

Tomm Tice
Where the Bush is Burning