Forgive in a World that Doesn’t:

I am currently reading a book called, “Forgiveness,” by Timothy Keller.   This book started with a description of the world we live in today that has forgiveness as not a main priority.  The world, as a whole, believes forgiveness doesn’t give people justice.  They believe that when people are often forgiven, then they are being forgiven from all the wrongs in the world.  For example, when someone has murdered someone else, and the mother of the deceased has forgiven the murderer, people say that this forgiveness takes away the justice from what he did.  There should be no forgiveness to certain people is a common belief.  

We also see that there are many people who seem to only focus on forgiveness from the point of the person who needs to forgive.  This could be the victim or the survivor of a perpetrator’s actions.  It is all about whether or not they are ready or if they want to forgive this other person.  Even many certified therapists have taught and trained those studying to become therapists to not push the idea of forgiveness on their clients.  This has to be when they are ready to forgive and when they are willing to choose to let this piece of pain go. 

Another type of forgiveness is only forgiving those who “deserve it”  Those who have worked to apologize, ask for forgiveness, been shamed, etc.  Then maybe after they have “served their time,” then they can be forgiven.   This shows that forgiveness is something gained and worked for. Forgiveness is not something simply granted to anyone. 

However,  Keller reminds us, especially in the last type of forgiveness-the forgiveness earned, that we are forgiven by God even when we do not deserve it.  We could never earn our forgiveness from God.  This is why Jesus had to die on the cross and create our salvation for us. Keller reminds us that the reason why we should be able to forgive is because God has forgiven us.  The love we receive from Christ, should extend to others, even when they have wronged us.  

One quote I thought was really good from this book, taken from Martin Luther King Jr. was “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love.”  This reminds us that when we forgive, we are also showing love.  When God forgives us, he is showing the greatest amount of love anyone or any being could.  He is choosing to forgive us, even though we could never repay him or make up for the negatives we did.  

The Bible speaks so heavily of forgiveness. Forgiveness is mentioned over a hundred times in the Bible. One verse is Colossians 3:13 which says, “Bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”  There are going to be people in the world who hurt us.  There are going to be those who have wrong thoughts or opinions of you, and there are going to be those who complain against you.  However, the Bible wouldn’t describe the greatness of forgiveness so much if it was not worth doing.  

I am not going to say forgiveness is always easy.  The main reason I am reading this book is because there are few people who have hurt me, who I have just not been able to forgive so well.  They have hurt me and have left me crying at different points.  I want them to feel sorry for how they have made me feel.  However, I realized how I was responding to their hurt was no better than how they were acting towards me.  I didn’t deserve much better.  I wasn’t showing any more love than they were showing to me.  Because of the struggle to forgive, I saw this book, and I realized I did need to have a heart more filled with love and forgiveness.  

The basis of this is that forgiveness is important and essential for the Christian faith.  This is not because we need to let people “off the hook,” or to give them grace.  It isn’t to feel like a better person. It is also not because we need to forgive for our own benefits.  We don’t need to just forgive so we don’t have the anger inside of us.  Both of these are beneficial, but these are not the reasons for forgiveness.  Forgiveness comes because we are so filled with love from Christ dying on the cross for our sins, that we simply love others with a similar kind of love.  We are so filled with God’s love that we want to show that love to everyone we meet.  We want everyone to know about this kind of love.  The book reminds us that if we are not filled with a heart of forgiveness, then we have not fully experienced the love that God has for us.  

I have a few challenges for you through this week. The first one is to spend time reading the Gospel.  This can be found in the final chapters of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John.  The reason to spend time in these chapters is to remember the love the Lord has for you.  This is the love that God bestowed on you.  You should be able to see how much he has forgiven you for every wrong and choice and every mistake you have ever made.  This goes for everyone.  

The second part of the challenge for this week is to spend some time thinking about one person or a group of people of whom you are struggling to forgive.  It is important to spend time reflecting on why you are struggling to forgive them.  What is it that makes it hard for you to forgive this person or this group of people?  Why do you not want to forgive?  After spending time in the Gospel and being able to reflect on God’s forgiveness, then pray for the ability to forgive those who have wronged you in the past.  We are all loved and forgiven, so we do have the ability to forgive.