“Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you.” After saying this, he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”” John 20:21-23 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/jhn.20.23.CSB

How many sinners do you know? How many family members and friends do we have who ignore Jesus and make no attempts to obey His commands? To these and even those we don’t know scattered throughout the world, we who know Jesus as Savior have been sent to declare Him as Lord and Savior of all humanity. We who claim Jesus as Savior have been sent by that Savior to make Him known in the world through the declaration of the gospel and the development of discipleship, teaching obedience to everything Jesus commanded. Failure to execute this purpose for our lives is to leave people in their sins to face a judgment of condemnation where they will spend their eternity in hell suffering for their refusal to follow Jesus. While it is their responsibility to repent and obey, our responsibility is to model and share Jesus as Savior and Lord. The Great Commission is the mission of every Christian entrusted to us collectively as the church to bring hope to the world, the forgiveness of sins, and abundant eternal life with God on the new earth. Who are we not forgiving? Who in our lives is retaining their sins? Let us do all we can for everyone we can to proclaim Jesus as Savior and Lord so that they might be free from the bondage of sin and the penalty of sin which is our shared experience until we receive Jesus as Savior and Lord.