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FORGIVE ONE ANOTHER
Jesus said unto him,
" Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets."-Matthew 22: 37-40
"Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you; That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust. For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same? And if ye salute your brethren only, what do ye more than others? do not even the publicans so? Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect."
-Matthew 5:43-48
God's Word tells us we are to forgive one another.
Forgiveness is an act of willful pardon that demonstrates to others God's nature inside us. Jesus looks at our sins no more when He forgives us, so our choice in forgiveness is to look at the incident no more in our declaration of pardoning (forgiving). In doing this we decide we will therefore not hold any wrong doing against the person.
Lets take a moment to look at the meaning of forgiveness itself and how it applies to us. Does the act of forgiving someone mean that we will automatically forget the incident that caused us to feel this way? Not so. It is unrealistic to think that we can automatically block or permanently erase memories and events from our mind. Try as we may, the events will still be in memory. We must, however choose to put the incident behind us and not bring it up again or hold it in any way against the person. The person will therefore be released from any wrong doing in our decision to forgive.
In the Old Testament, verses such as Isaiah 38:17 AND Nehemiah 9:17, speak of the nature of God and forgiveness. We see that God is patient, gracious, kind and merciful, ready always to forgive us. When we ask for forgiveness, God remembers our sins no more. It is as if they never existed.
God completely forgives all our sins. He in fact blots them out.This is seen in several verses, one of them is Isaiah 38:1
"Behold, for peace I had great bitterness: but thou hast in love to my soul delivered it from the pit of corruption: for thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back."
According to Nehemiah 9:17, we again see that God is full of grace , mercy, kindness and ready to pardon sinners. God remains available, awaiting our seeking, awaiting our asking. God will never force Himself into our lives. He awaits patiently. He is seeking our conversation with Him as we pray . God desires our fellowship with Him. His hand of forgiveness is extended to us if we will only reach out and take hold of all He has to offer us.
We should imitate this nature in our life. It is only possible through Jesus and the power of the Holy Spirit in our life.
"but thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not."
In the New Covenant , God gives us His Son, Jesus, who has become our Passover Lamb in the offering of Himself to atone for our sins. God's pardoning of our sins now comes through acceptance of His Son, Jesus Christ. His blood is applied upon the door post of our life and we are recognized by God as His. This forgiveness cleanses, changes, and enables us to stand righteous before Our God. This forgiveness gives complete freedom to all who seek and ask.
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."-John 3:16
"And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses;" -Colossians 2:13
As we look in the New Covenant, there is much said about godly character in the way we treat our fellow man. Jesus taught His disciples to love and forgive. The verse in Luke 6:37, seems to tell us that what we decide to do has a direct impact on our own life. If we don't want to be judged, then we shouldn't judge others. If we don't want others to condemn us, then neither should we condemn. Jesus extends this to forgiveness. If we forgive others, we shall also be forgiven.
" Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven:"
Jesus said that if we are indeed His disciples, then we will forgive others out of godly love and obedience to the Holy Word. If God's love truly resides in our heart and we have been transformed by that love, the resulting change will be apparent in that His character will begin to come alive in our own life. This transforming of ourselves will continue as we grow in Him. The more we become like Him , the more we will want to forgive and make things right with people.
"Because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy." -1 Peter 1:14
"But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God."-John 3:21
How many times are we to forgive someone? Jesus tells us that we are to forgive without limit and unconditionally. If someone comes to us asking to be pardoned for something she or he has done to hurt or offend us, then we should grant that forgiveness.
Forgiveness of others should be our first priority when approaching God in prayer. We must come to God with a clear conscience, repentant of any sin that may be in our life. Sin causes a breach in our communication with God. By our confession, repentance, and seeking forgiveness, we will mend that breach thus opening the flow of communication between ourselves and God.
"And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him." -Luke 17:4
"Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven."- Matthew 18:21-22
We must be willing to forgive others if we expect our Father to forgive us. It is , after all, only right that Sons and Daughters of the Most High would be like the Father God. It is only right considering all that Jesus has done for us. His law is written in Our heart. His love inside us is being extended to others, and we are a living example.
"And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses. But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses."-Mark 11:25-26
As believers , we must remain aware that unforgiveness is a tool of satan to cause us to harbor feelings of hate, bitterness, anger, and division. Satan will always attempt to place thoughts in our mind in order to inflate a thought and make it worse than it really is. The device of unforgivenss takes our thoughts off God and on other things so it is difficult if not impossible to focus on Him and Who He is in our life. It blocks our prayer life, takes our mind off fellowship, Bible reading and quality time with God.
Unforgiveness is not something we want hanging over us. It is like a heavy weight, which in essence is pulls us down and more than likely everyone else with us.
Unforgiveness steals and destroys. It steals our peace of mind, our joy, our happiness, the song from our heart, and can even steal health.
Many are the reports of people who have had medical conditions as a result of unforgiveness in their life. It has been known to cause anxiety and depression.Let us not let satan take advantage of us in an attempt to steal our joy by placing unforgiveness in our life. Our life on this earth is but a moment. Let us glorify the Lord in our living honoring Him as we observe His example and keep His Word.
" I will forgive anyone you forgive. Yes, for your sake and with Christ as my witness, I have forgiven whatever needed to be forgiven. I have done this to keep Satan from getting the better of us. We all know what goes on in his mind."-2 Corinthians 10 , 11 (The Contemporary English Version)
