Forgiveness

  In a Nutshell...

And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you (Ephesians 4:32).

Generally, forgiveness must be swift on our part and genuine. But I believe that like our Heavenly Father we must not excuse or overlook wrong doing in a way that will assist the person in continuing in their wrong behavior.

God made forgiveness available to us; the basis of it had been taken care of and He was not at odds with us. However, we had to acknowledge our need and believe Him and accept the gift from Him before forgiveness was applied in the sense of complete reconciliation.

Similarly we must forgive immediately so as not to hold a grudge and we must not desire retribution and vengeance. Further, the decision to forgive and the offer of that forgiveness must be made known to the individual who has wronged us. But that does not mean we pretend that the person is something they are not and it does not mean that we grant them our trust before they acknowledge their wrongdoing and repent of the sin against us. We are, however, prepared (having forgiven them) to treat them civilly and lovingly and not be bitter or hostile. If they do turn to the Lord and repent and ask us to forgive them and "take them back" so to speak, we must do it quickly, joyfully, and sincerely.

But even if they do not "come back" we did forgive them and that means that we are prepared to seek their best and pray for them even if it means simply turning them over to the Lord and committing them to Him. It definitely mean that we will let the thing against them go and not bad mouth them to others. We would want to keep the matter to ourselves and only relate facts if it was necessary to protect someone else from being hurt but this would not be done through gossip or tattling. It would probably be best done in front of a trusted spiritual friend (a witness).

To be continued...