As we forgive those who sin against us

Read Matthew 18:32-33

32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said,’You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant,just as I had mercy on you?’ (NLT)

We who have been forgiven much need to be prepared to forgive little. This text comes at the end of a story Jesus told to illustrate how we are to forgive those who cause relatively minor hurt to us on the basis that God has forgiven the relatively major hurt we cause him.

God was prepared to have Jesus take the whole ugly load of our wrongdoing on himself. Not just the little sins but the big sins,not just past sins but future sins,not just the scandalously public sins but the grievous secret sins. So those who have received such mercy are to extend mercy to others.

We so easily get offended at others. They say or do something that upsets us and we nurse that grievance. We work ourselves up into a lather of self-righteous indignation over some real or imagined slight. If we ever get around to forgiving it is grudging and conditional: it is mere polite good manners rather than ‘from the heart’ forgiving.

Realising just how much we have failed our holy and loving God is a prerequisite for forgiving those who fail us. Next time we are tempted to withhold mercy and forgiveness from someone,get to thinking about what things would be like if God did the same to us. How dare we be overflowing with resentment in the light of our God who is rich in mercy.

Blessings
David Reay