To forgive

Over the past few weeks, I have been talking about values. So far, diversity, love and acceptance. This week, we’re looking at forgiveness.

I offer just four thoughts on this subject: Firstly, it’s costly. To forgive is to let someone off the hook, and deny your right to justice. As an example, someone steals $100 from you. They are caught, but the money is gone. You forgive them, releasing them from justice, thereby costing you $100.

Secondly, do it for your friendships. Proverbs 17:9 says “He who covers over an offence promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Want to have good friends? Don’t remind people of all the ways you believe they have failed you. 

Thirdly, do it to take the peace on offer. Carrying offences around with you is a burden you cannot sustain without doing damage to yourself in mind, body and soul. Wounds of the most serious and profound nature don’t just scar, they can even define us. Forgiveness, though not easy, is necessary to shed the dead-weight of offence and wounds that threaten to engulf your humanity. A lack of forgiveness is a dis-ease in your person. The Hebrew word for peace, shalom, means complete wholeness of the person and this is a God-given state. A refusal to forgive and instead nurse your wounds forms a hard heart that cuts you off from God’s forgiveness, which is the path to the shalom of God.

Finally, given there is a cost (and it can feel substantial), forgive out of obedience to the Lord Jesus. We are commanded to forgive. We are told if we don’t do as he commands, then we are not true followers. It’s easy to say but hard to do and if you can’t see the benefits available today, then do it because you fear God, for Jesus has warned us (Matt 6:15) the Father will not forgive us if we do not forgive others.

We’re all sinners and have all done wrong. Forgiveness is the Christ-given path to reconciliation with God and one another.​