FORGIVENESS AND 2025

Don’t enter the New Year bound and weighted down by having not forgiven anyone who has wronged you, thrown you under the bus or in any way sinned against you in the past. “Forgiveness,” someone once said, “is setting a prisoner free, and discovering that the prisoner was you.” Read Matt. 18:21-35 and consider the following:

JESUS IS SPEAKING TO Peter, a believer and a disciple who is (1) is struggling with how willing he should be to forgive someone who has clearly wronged him, and (2) how long his forgiveness of his brother should be sustained. ((By extension, Jesus’ words to Peter are directed to all of us).

JESUS IS SAYING that there is no “statute of limitations” where our forgiveness of others is concerned. God’s forgiveness of sin is an undeserved gift that our Lord wants everyone to have (Rom. 6:23), and involves the enabling of us to forgive those who sin against us. Just as His forgiveness of us has no “shelf life,” but is everlasting, our forgiveness of others is meant to have no “shelf life,” but is intended to be, and capable of being, an enduring forgiveness. In this respect, forgiveness is truly meant to be, and can be, a “gift that keeps on giving.”

THE FACTS IDENTIFIED: Fact one: there is a challenge involved with our forgiveness of others. The tendency of our flesh isn’t to be magnanimous, but to do the bare minimum possible in forgiving brethren who’ve sinned against us (v. 21).  And forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive them that trespass. against us” (Matt.6:12).

Fact two: forgiveness is a matter of choice.  We have the option to respond either compassionately or callously towards those who’ve wronged us. We can follow the example of the merciful “king” (vv. 23-27) or the example of the mean-spirited “servant” (vv. 28-30). See also, Eph. 4:332 and Col. 3:13.

Fact three: there are consequences involved with our forgiveness of others (v. 35). The law of reaping and sowing comes into play here (Gal. 6:7; Matt. 7:12). “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7). See also, Matt. 6:14, 15; Luke 6:37; Mark 11:25.