I
recently got a request asking me to write a blog about forgiveness, and
when I told Jamie what I was doing she responded with “ohhh boyyy
that’ll be a good one for you” because I’m not always the most forgiving
person in the world.. in fact it’s something I’ve really been working
on lately.
I figured I should start off by mentioning what Jesus has to say on the issue, because, after all, He’s a pretty smart dude.
Matthew
18:21-35 is Jesus teaching about forgiveness. He tells a parable of a
king who wants to settle his accounts with his servants. The king brings
in one of his servants who owes him ten thousand talents and the
servant is unable to pay him back but before the king throws him into
jail, the servant begs for patience from the king and the king one ups
him and forgives him of his debt. That very same slave then went out and
found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, the
fellow slave asked for patience but instead the servant, who was just
forgiven, throws his fellow servant into jail for owing him far less
than the amount he owed the king.
The king found out what happened and said “You wicked slave,
I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not
also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way I had mercy
on you?”
Then the king moved with anger and handed him over to be tortured until he should repay all that he owes.
Jesus
then goes on to say, “My heavenly Father will also do the same to you,
if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart.”
(I really recommend you read it for yourself in the Bible because God’s wording is much better than my own)
I
just want to point out that this isn’t necessarily saying that if you
died right now, before you had a chance to forgive someone, then you’d
go to hell, because we know from scripture throughout the Bible that we
can’t lose our salvation. But in a way we are still condemned when we
don’t forgive.
Throughout
the Bible one of the primary description of Hell is separation from God, and
it just so happens that when you can’t find it in yourself to forgive
someone, you also can’t fully love God, and the longer you dwell on the
wrongs that person committed towards you the farther you slip from God.
Because to love God is to obey his commandments (1 John 5:3) and in
Mark 12:31 we see the second greatest commandment is to love your
neighbor as yourself.
Holding a grudge consumes you.
But
the main thing Jesus was pointing out in that passage is, that it is
awfully pathetic when we can’t forgive others for wrongs they’ve
committed towards us, when Jesus forgives us for sinning against Him
about a million times per day.
We
are too selfish to give out just a little bit of grace to someone who
has wronged us, when we’ve already received the ultimate amount of
grace.
I
can remember my first time reading that passage in Sunday school when I
was little and the Sunday school teacher asked us what we thought of
the evil servant and I immediately said he was a complete jerk and
deserved what he got. Then she told me that he represented us and I
remember just feeling a sense of “oh crap, she’s right”
We are that evil servant all too often.
This
forgiveness business doesn’t come naturally to us, but fortunately we
have the ultimate example in Jesus, whose grace is unlimited (1 Timothy
1:16).
So
next time you are having trouble forgiving someone just remember how
much you’ve been forgiven from and then free yourself from the chains of
holding a grudge for your own sake and because you were forgiven first,
even though you really didn’t deserve it.
Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you
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