Forgive

             Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. (Ephesians 4:32) 

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)

 

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”

 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22) 

 

We have big problems with forgiveness. When we are the ones who have wronged, we tend to want forgiveness to be automatic and absolute but without our needing to change or even really thinking we’ve done anything that needs to be forgiven. We think we can continue to do as we’ve done, because now we’re forgiven, and somehow, what we do is entirely disconnected from who we are. And, more than anything else, we want there to be no consequences for what we’ve done.

But when we are the ones who have been wronged, we tend to want to demand change – with ten years of evidence of said change and compensation in some form. We also maintain the right to rehearse the injury at some later date, gaining further repentance and compensation from the guilty party. We also tend to have sins and people that we have placed in the “unforgiveable” list.  This might be people like Mao, Stalin, and Hitler, who orchestrated the deaths of some 130 million people. Or, it might include people who commit abortion, child abuse, pedophilia, animal abuse, or various crimes against the environment.

            And, we tend to think of forgiveness a discreet action, something we do, rather than as a characteristic of the type of person we are. But Scripture teaches us that we are to be forgiving. In fact, the third passage above has a second possible translation of the Aramaic that tells us we are to forgive seventy times seven times, or 490 times, per person. By the time you reach that number, you’ll either have lost count or developed a forgiving habit.

            It’s never that the person you’re forgiving deserves to be forgiven any more than you deserve to be forgiven by God. But by forgiving, you prevent the sin from eating away at you or controlling you.