Then
Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me,
and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you,
up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. Matthew 18:21-22 NKJV
A
question was posed to me recently concerning the field of psychology, and my
thoughts about its effectiveness relating to interpersonal relationships. This is, of course, what many would call a
loaded question and there are many well-known Bible teachers and expositors
that have examined and shared their thoughts with the Church. As for me, I agree with their conclusion that
there is nothing God can’t do,so it follows that He is perfectly capable of
healing all wounds. With that in mind,
is it a clue to us as believers that Jesus spent so much time teaching on the
subject of forgiveness?
“Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there
remember that your brother has something against you, “leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be
reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift.” Matthew 5:23-24 NKJV
As strange as it may sound, the one thing I look forward to
the most is something I have a hard time imagining. That statement probably doesn’t make a lot of
sense now does it? Well, let me try to
explain. What I look forward to the most
is life without sin, or a sin nature.
That would be a perfect description of our future life in Heaven, yet
because I have never known a life without sin or my sin nature, I have
absolutely no idea just what that would be like. What I do know, however, is what I have
observed in this life about how sin can have a detrimental effect on our
relationship with God and with others.
If you took the time to study all that Jesus taught on His
time on earth, and categorized the subject matter, you would find that the
subject of forgiveness was one of, if not the most discussed subject He shared
with us. I’m sure also, that most of us
have learned somewhere along the line is that anything given that much
attention must be considered rather important.
It is my thought that the subject of forgiveness is one of the most
basic, fundamental building blocks of our lives as believers. That being the case, it then becomes one of
the most important ones for us to not only understand, but practice as God has revealed to us.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly
Father will also forgive you. “But
if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive
your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV
I believe these two passages from the book of Matthew tell
us just how important the spirit of forgiveness is to our Father, and why it
should be to us as well. As believers,
we have made the choice to ask God to forgive us of our sins, and He did as He
promised He would, thus establishing our relationship with him for all of
eternity. Yet although that relationship
as God’s children is unbreakable, these passages also tell us that our
relationship with Him can be severely affected by our unwillingness to forgive
others as He has forgiven us.
The passage from Matthew 6 says unless we forgive those
who’ve sinned against us, God will not forgive our sins. This doesn’t apply to
our salvation but to maintaining our fellowship with God after we’re saved. As
born again believers, the failure to forgive will not endanger our eternal
salvation but it will cause us to be estranged from God during our lives
here. If we look at it this way, can any
of us really believe that being angry at someone else and choosing not to
forgive is worth the price we will pay?
I would have to say that from what I read, it appears that forgiveness
is a command from God, not a suggestion.
Although hard for most of us to understand, especially given
our sin nature, in God’s eyes it’s rather simple. When someone does something that hurts us, we
suffer. But if we choose not to forgive
them, we too then sin and according to God, will suffer even more. If we obey God and choose to forgive, then He
will remove the anger from within us, give us peace, and restore our
relationship with Him to good standing.
I think what many of us fail to realize is that by choosing to be angry,
and not forgiving someone who has wronged us, we end up being the one who
suffers the most.
“Be angry, and do not
sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath, nor give place to the
devil.” Ephesians 4:26-27 NKJV
Making the choice to be angry, and not forgive, simply
invites Satan to come in and work on us to try and justify our wrong attitude
causing a downward spiral that becomes harder and harder to escape. Paul’s advice to us is to deal with our anger
immediately by following God’s command to forgive, and not let Satan get a
foothold in our life. James also tells
us how and why it is important to do as God instructs us.
“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee
from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands,
you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.” James 4:7-8
NKJV
When we made the decision to accept the sacrifice Jesus made
for our sins, we were forgiven. Failure
to forgive others will not endanger that salvation, but it will definitely
negatively affect our relationship with God and deprive us of blessings in this
life as well as the loss of rewards in the next one. Our sin nature creates in us the desire to
punish someone when they do something which offends us. We naturally want to be angry, and find it
easy to justify our feelings of payback and punishment as being well
deserved. Yet punishment is under God’s
purview, not ours. We are commanded to
forgive others just as we have been forgiven. God
made the choice to forgive us before we even asked. Can we not do the same for others as well?
Many years ago I recall hearing the sins against us we
choose not to forgive and carry with us described as “junk in our trunk”. Have you chosen not to forgive someone for
something they have done to you in the past? Has
the sun gone down on your anger? Are you
carrying junk in your trunk? The truth
is, you have chosen to sin by ignoring God’s command and it is affecting your
life in ways you may not even realize.
Give your anger over to God, and forgive those who have offended
you. Allow God to deal with the problem
and restore your relationship with the Father to its rightful standing and
begin again to enjoy the life He has planned for you.
Keep watching.
