Equipped

Forgive as I have forgiven you.
Love one another.
Rejoice in the Lord always.
Be holy, as I am holy.

Hard words. They sound good, certainly, on skimming over them. We generally agree that forgiveness is a positive thing, we like to love and be loved, and we don't mind having joy. Holiness is a little tougher to get behind sometimes, but we could accept it. But always? The command to rejoice is the only one that explicitly includes the always, but it's implicit in the others. These commands are to fuse together into the lifestyle we live. We are to forgive every offense, love every fellow human being, and rejoice in every circumstance. We are to be holy, blameless, and set apart by our faithfulness in following these commands. Every day.

The secret is this: if He demands it of us, He equips us for it. If He sends us down a path, He has walked it before and will walk it again by our sides. We do not have to follow these commands on our own strength; in fact, we cannot. But He lived them once in a perfect life, died for our failure to live them, and will live them again through us if we let Him. And we, through dying to ourselves and living to Him, will benefit. Everything is to be gained-- forgiveness, love, joy-- and nothing is to be lost except those things that will only cause us sorrow in the end.