In one
occasion, talking about a repentant woman, our Lord Jesus Christ said:
“Whoever has been forgiven little loves
little.”
(Luke 7:47)
With this,
Lord Jesus said that the gratitude of a person whose many and grave sins have
been forgiven, will be more grateful and loving towards this Redeemer than that
person whose sins have not been many in number or equal in severity.
As average
Christians, many have experienced difficulty in forgiving someone who has hurt
them or offended them in great manner. Generally people will keep resentment
towards someone who has caused them deep pain or humiliation, and find extremely
hard to forget and forgive the damage caused to them unjustly. Even when in
most cases they may do not act against the offender, still, the emotional
resentment remains, and it is manifests almost unconsciously in different ways,
especially in the way they alternate with them afterwards or the comments they
may give to others about that person.
Lord Jesus
talking about forgiveness clearly said:
“For if you forgive other people when
they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do
not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
(Matthew
6:14-15)
Our
obligation to forgive is born from the fact that we also have the need to be
forgiven; forgiven by people we have hurt in the past, forgiven from the bad
consequences of our actions, forgiven ultimately by God.
Being
imperfect and sinful, even if our transgressions are not terrible crimes punishable
by human Law; still, we received mercy from God to be cleaned from the guilt of
our own evil actions. When we deserved punishment, we received mercy, mercy
absolutely necessary to save us from eternal condemnation (Romans 5:8). And
since we were already forgiven by God and possibly other human beings we
wronged as well, we incurred into a moral debt with God and humanity. It is
under this moral debt that we are obliged to forgive others as well who have
done evil to us, whatever that may be.
Lord Jesus
illustrated this in the parable of “The Unforgiving Servant”, where a man has
his money debt forgiven, but was unwilling to forgive his companion. To this
man Jesus said in the parable:
“You wicked servant, I cancelled all
that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on
your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ In anger his master handed him over
to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.”
(Matthew
18:32-34)
Nothing
impure can enter the Kingdom of Heaven, and part of this impurity, is an
unforgiving resentful heart.
It may be
difficult in extreme to forgive someone who has committed serious crimes
against us or our families, our parents or our children or brothers. If this is
the case we must continue to pray to God to be able to forgive them, and to be
set free from that burden.
To forgive
someone who has done evil to us, does not mean to be friends with them or act
with them like nothing ever happened. To forgive someone is to do not answer
back with evil their actions; means to do not discredit their person before
others, to do not discriminate against them in anyway, and to let go
resentment. To forgive does not mean to forget what happened or to act
irresponsibly like nothing ever happen, because that person could do the same
evil again and take us for fools.
BUT the
overall result is that we must forgive, or our salvation would be jeopardized. If
we die with resentment towards someone in this life, this unforgiveness will
make impossible to God to grant us forgiveness, forgiveness we desperately need
to be saved.
Forgiveness
may be a difficult task, but it is vitally necessary for our salvation. In facing
a difficult case of resentment, prayer, fasting, regular confession and
communion are necessary, and every bit counts, every practical effort, even the
simple desire to wanting to forgive goes on our favour. We all need
forgiveness. We all have hurt others knowingly or not. We all have accounts to
pay. Let the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the Cross, who suffered so that
everyone who repents maybe forgiven, us and them; be not in vain, because
refusal to forgive is also to reject Jesus’s suffering on the Cross, because He
already paid the punishment of that person that wrong us, as much as He paid
for our own wrongs.
“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)
Omar Flores
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