From the desk of Pastor Ben

Forgiveness of One Another – Part 1

“ . . . If each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
(Matthew 18:35b)

Christians’ forgiveness of each other is not as powerful as God’s, which absolves believers from sin and continually cleanses their hearts from daily iniquity. However, their forgiveness of each other must reflect these two kinds of forgiveness. They must possess an internal, all-encompassing attitude that is ready to forgive in advance, before the sin is known or the other person requests forgiveness. That spirit is in-changing and reflects love from God that “covers a multitude of sins” (1 Peter 4:8). If the offending believer repents, the other believer then offers relational forgiveness and God restores the broken relationship.

Disciples of Christ should be identified as forgiving people, because they’ve been forgiven as no other group. If they refuse to forgive other believers, they deny their redeemed nature and sever themselves from God’s relational forgiveness that cleanses them from ongoing sins. They thereby forfeit inner peace, power, and sanctification that only a strong relationship with Jesus Christ can produce.

Billy Graham wrote many years ago, “Forgiveness is the image of God, the forgiving Father, and an advancement of Christ’s kingdom in the world.” The Beatitudes tell us, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matthew 5:7). If we desire mercy and blessing fro Christ for our repeated sins against Him, we must have a heartfelt willingness to forgive fellow believers even for repeated sins against us. Then we can genuinely and confidently ask God to “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).

Ask Yourself:
What does forgiveness “from your heart” entail? Can genuine forgiveness ever occur in any other way? What is set in motion (or allowed to continue) when a form of forgiveness is given that is less than authentic, less than wholehearted, less than the measure of God’s grace?