The Bible Study Podcast, episode 278. Today, the Bible Study podcast continues the study on the

fundamentals of Christianity. Welcome to the Bible Study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

As we started last week in this,

I'm not sure how many part study on the fundamentals of Christianity, we started with forgiveness,

and we started with the understanding that we are forgiven by God. And I said that that was going to be

not the last word that we would have on forgiveness in this particular study,

because we have to look at the other part.

And I think you probably know what's coming if you have spent any time studying the Bible at all.

And that's those words, for instance, that we first hear in the Lord's Prayer,

and forgive us our debts as we have forgiven our debtors.

Lead us not at temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

For if you forgive others, when they sin against you, your Heavenly Father will also forgive

you.

But if you do not forgive others their sins, your father will not forgive your sins.

And this is from Matthew 6, verses 12 through 15.

And I think if you have spent any time in the Bible, you'll understand that this is a fundamental

teaching of Christianity. It's a fundamental teaching of Jesus. And we have it right here in the

Lord's prayer. When Jesus is asked by his disciples,

teach us to pray, he gives them this prayer as a template. And one of the things that he emphasizes

in this is forgiveness. It is a real cornerstone of Christianity and yet one that I would say we are not always good at doing.

We are called to be not just a forgiven people, but a forgiving people, a merciful people as God has been merciful to us.

And it's important to understand that because we sometimes think that we will shame people into the

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