Paul instructs believers to Put on Christ which specifically looks like the practices of compassion, patience, kindness, gentleness, humility. This difficult task requires bearing with one another, forgiving one another, and ultimately doing all this with the perfect attitude of sacrificial love.

In today’s context people often think of forgiveness in purely emotional terms, and not the concept of pardoning or forgiving someone from guilt or punishment. That implies something else – a position of authority.­ In this account, a paralytic is brought to Jesus, and seeing their faith, He declares the man’s sins are forgiven. Jesus then confronts the accusations and doubts of the Scribes through the physical healing of the man. By this miracle, Jesus demonstrates to the people His authority and power to forgive the sins of men. The crowds respond to Christ’s authority with reverence and awe.