By Staff
Society is filled with broken relationships.
Conflict is everywhere. Rage, abuse, and revenge seem the order of the day.
We demand personal freedom and obeisance while rejecting responsibility.
Everyone has an agenda, and it does not include giving up anything for the sake of another.
The relationships we see are based on strength. Nations relate to each other based on the size of armies or economic clout. The business world is demanding and never relents except for the possible free turkey at Christmastime. It is all about me and mine.
One would think the church would model forgiveness, but broken relationships permeate the church-goers at the same rate as those who never bother with church. The tension between most ministers and the people they serve reflect inordinate demands of temporal success. Forgiveness does not seem to fit in.
God is the author of forgiveness. The foundation of the relationship between God and man is forgiveness. If we lined up toe to toe with God demanding anything from Him, we would be annihilated apart from the forgiveness afforded through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. God took the initiative and keeps on with us to maintain the relationship.
The Bible teaches that we are to forgive because we have been forgiven. The ones we must forgive are no more worthy of it than we are. The Apostle Paul admonished the people of Ephesus in Ephesians, chapter 4, verse 32, "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you."
The prayer Jesus taught His disciples in the gospel of Luke, chapter 11, verse 4, carries the same thought, "And forgive us our sins, for we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us."
Rather than forgiving and forgetting, we are more like the servant in the parable in Matthew, chapter 18, verses 21-35. The servant owed his master a lot of money. The master required payment. The servant asked his master to be patient and he would pay the entire debt. The master had compassion and forgave the entire debt, releasing the servant from the obligation.
The servant left the meeting with his master and confronted a fellow servant who owed him a small amount. The fellow servant echoed the same words, "Have patience with me and I will pay you all" (Matthew 18:29). The first servant obviously was not impacted by the tremendous act of forgiveness given him by his master. He had his fellow servant put in jail until he could pay.
Other servants heard the story and told the master. The master called the first servant to task for his lack of forgiveness. The master said, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?" (Matthew 18:32-33).
The master turned the wicked servant over to the torturers. Jesus ends the parable with this statement in verse 35, "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses."
Forgiveness is granted not from a lofty height of our superior character or lifestyle, but because we were desperate for forgiveness, found it in God, and pass it along from our lowly perch among the forgiven ones.
Being called a "wicked servant!" is strong phraseology, but few things are as wicked as holding a grudge and withholding forgiveness.
Make a list. Dispense forgiveness quickly before the Master calls you to task.