Commentaries:
Barnes' Notes
Forbearing one another - Notes, Ephesians 4:2.
And forgiving one another - Notes, Matthew 6:12, Matthew 6:14.
If any man have a quarrel against any - Margin, "or complaint." The word used here - ́ momphē - occurs nowhere else in the New Testament. It means, "fault found, blame, censure;" and here denotes occasion of complaint. The idea is, that if another one has given us just occasion of complaint, we are to forgive him; that is, we are:
(1)To harbor no malice against him;
(2)We are to be ready to do him good as if he had not given us occasion of complaint;
(3)We are to be willing to declare that we forgive him when be asks it; and,
(4)We are always afterward to treat him as kindly as if he had not injured us - as God treats us when he forgives us; see the notes at Matthew 18:21.
Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye - Learn here that Christ has power to forgive sin; compare the Matthew 9:6 note; Acts 5:31 note. Christ forgave us:
(1)Freely - he did not hesitate or delay when we asked him;
(2)Entirely - he pardoned all our offences;
(3)Forever - he did it so as to remember our sins no more, and to treat us ever onward as if we had not sinned.
So we should forgive an offending brother.
Other Barnes' Notes entries containing Colossians 3:13:
2 Timothy 2:24
1 Peter 5:5
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