Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. Colossians 3.13
I’m not sure what it is. When I think of ‘bearing with each other’ I think in terms of ‘tolerating’ or ‘putting up with’ someone else. Sometimes it is the person who most irritates us that we need. They expose those areas in our life that we think have been changed or transformed. Not always but sometimes. Sometimes the other person needs change as much as we do. Luckily, we can embrace the grace of God in this process and walk it out together.
The ‘one anothers’ of the New Testament provide a way for us to engage in this spiritual journey together. Not only do we get to ‘walk it out’ together we can also ‘walk into it’ together. Figuring out our spiritual path is not one of isolation, although times of solitude play a part in spiritual formation. We need each other in all this. We can work it out together. We can bear others burdens. We can forgive. We can be forgiven. We can be reconciled. We can walk out love and forgiveness by the grace of God. We can walk into the grace of God and share divine love and forgiveness with others. May grace and love abound to us all….
