Many believe that Christ and His church are more about condemnation than about forgiveness. This is not entirely surprising since our society embraces and even celebrates behaviors and mindsets that the Bible would call sin. This seems to put God and His people in opposition with the people of this world. But in fact the opposite is true. God is for forgiveness and His desire is not to condemn but to forgive and so also His church must be for forgiveness over condemnation.

Our God is the God of forgiveness, overlooking our wrongs, adopting us into His family, and empowering us to forgive as He forgive. In Colossians chapter 3, the apostle Paul taught the church of Colossae that they could forgive each other by putting on the traits of Christ. We can forgive each other by putting on traits of Christ.