By Pst. Bryan Mwashigadi in Bulletin

Sep 14, 2021 19:26

Col 3 : 13 'Make allowance for each other's faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.' 

Forgiveness is truly one of those new-man responsibilities we acquire the day we say Yes to Jesus.

In the fashion of Jesus, it should be so often that you cannot keep count. The old argument on whether 70 or 70 times  begs the question 'why'? Is it because it is tiring to forgive? To follow God's express command ? Is it burdensome to swiftly carry out what God has said?

When we consider the staggering debt Jesus forgave for us, and the comparative smallness of the debts others have toward us, it is base ingratitude for us to not forgive them. 

In comparison to God's example, we fall short...gravely!

For example, 

  1. God makes the first move towards us in forgiveness; the habit of man is to only be reconciled IF the offending party CRAVES forgiveness and MAKES the first move. If the offender must show you that they need it, even beg for it, your forgiveness is struggling.
  2. God forgives often KNOWING that we will sin again, sometimes in the EXACT SAME way. It is the habit of man to forgive ONLY IF the offending party SOLEMNLY PROMISES to never do the wrong again If they must solemnly vow to never offend you again, your forgiveness is struggling. 

The place of unforgiveness and conditional forgiveness, with the 'ifs' and 'whens' is the pedestal called PRIDE. It thinks to itself, 'Don't they ever learn? Will they always offend me? They are unworthy of my pardon'.

We forget that if Jesus were to apply the same standards on us, we'd be miserable.

Spurgeon puts it thus,

Suppose that someone had grievously offended you, and that he asked your forgiveness, do you not think that you would probably say to him, 'Well, yes, I forgive you; but I cannot forget it’? Ah! dear friends, that is a sort of forgiveness with one leg chopped off, it is a lame forgiveness, and is not worth much."

Forgiveness is for yourself than it is for the other person. 

In the words of Rev. Geoffrey Mwithi, 'To free the offender, is to free yourself'.

Discussion 

  1. What have I learnt?
  2. What am I prepared to do? 

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