Forgive One Another

             Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13)

 

One day the angels came to present themselves before the Lord, and Satan also came with them. The Lord said to Satan, “Where have you come from?”

Satan answered the Lord, “From roaming throughout the earth, going back and forth on it.”

Then the Lord said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil.” (Job 1:6-8

 

 

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Dahmer, Vic, the Sandy Hook Shooter or any of his various clones, Depp, Heard, Trump, Obama, Biden, Weinstein, Putin, child molesters, hunters, those who abuse animals, human traffickers, drug dealers, pimps, gangs, Blacks, Whites, religionists, atheists, rich, poor, your parents, your siblings, your neighbors, the one who raped you (or someone you love), or killed someone you love, Satan, … If you see the pattern, add to the list.

Suppose you met one or more of these folks on the street. What would you say to them? What would you do – or want to do to them? Don’t be shy - you and God are the only ones who will know, and God already does even if you don’t. I’ll be honest. I’m not sure what I’d do. I can be pretty sure of at least one thing I wouldn’t do. I wouldn’t even try to kill him/her. That’s not a statement of superior morality, it’s purely logistical. I’m more a threat to everything else around me with a weapon than I am to the target. I wouldn’t know how. Of course, in theory, I know the ropes – shooting, cutting a throat or a major artery, strangling, stopping heavy objects, gas chambers, lethal injections, poison, bombs – but how to accomplish any of those when one meets the person in question on the street? When it comes to violence, it’s not that I’m holy so much as that I’m incompetent.

Getting back to the issue – would you hold a pleasant conversation like God did with Satan? Think about the situation. God is on His throne, doing his God thing, when Satan steps forward. There are no lightning bolts tossed, no thundering of “How darest thou befoul My holy place with thy damned presence,” no summoning of the cherubim to throw him out. No. Instead, it’s “Where have you come from?” “Where’ve you been, Lucifer? Whatcha been doing? Oh, and have you noticed my servant, Job?”

Is that the sort of greeting you’d give the people from your list? “Good morning! How’re you? How are the kids? Done anything interesting since I last saw you?” One person I’ve discussed heaven with suggests that this will be our attitude there. It doesn’t matter what the person did, they’re in heaven anyway, whether they want to be or not. An author I’ve enjoyed suggests that those who do go to heaven learn to put all those bits of nastiness behind them. They don’t matter anymore. Someone else has told me that it’s God’s job to forgive people like that, not hers. I think most of us would find those answers to begin with the least agreeable, and end with the most.

Going back to what some of what Professor Willard teaches, what would it look like if you or I were more forgiving than we are? What change(s) would you have to make? And if forgiveness isn’t an issue that speaks to you right now, pick another. What would it look like if you were more ___________ than you are? What changes would you have to make?