Post date: Nov 7, 2014 6:19:22 PM
I was conversing with some other gents yesterday, on the topic of forgiveness in the Lord's Prayer, and in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. In the course of the conversation, one of them wondered if the statement, which appears in both contexts, that if I do not forgive, I will not be forgiven, might be an allusion to the 'unpardonable sin'.
The thought has been swirling in my mind ever since, and it really does seem to make sense. Forgiveness is a free gift given to me, as an antidote to my sin. If I then refuse to pass it on, might it be withdrawn? If I give to a charity, would I continue to give if it turned out the money was just going in the pocket of the CEO? Certainly not! Would a vaccine have any real effect if only one person took it? Forgiveness and grace seem to have the very nature and intent of being shared or passed on. To hold on to them for my own benefit, but refuse to share them, reveals a selfish heart, and if God judges a person by their heart, well then...
So what really stands out to me, is how much Christianity has tended to focus on sin as the problem, and I find myself wondering if this has just been a grand distraction for the last 2000 years! These texts in Jesus' teaching seem to point the finger at the refusal to forgive as the much greater concern. So many Christians seem primarily concerned about the residual sin in their life (and in the world), while judgments, resentments, and condemnation towards others go unnoticed. If we honestly listen to Jesus' teaching here, these priorities are backwards. If God has forgiven my sin, as the ultimate solution to the problem, why do we revert back to trying to eliminate it? Perhaps we would do better to focus our energies on forgiving others, and loving them despite their sin - just as God has done for us.
So in the interest of learning to love well, perhaps I love my self best by fully receiving God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness (which requires admitting why I need it, and will continue to need it). And I love others best by passing on God's mercy, grace, and forgiveness, to them. And in doing so, I love and honor God by acknowledging and actualizing the amazing healing power of his free gift: His antidote to the infection of sin.
Love keeps no record of wrongs. God IS Love. God is not keeping a list of your sins, so you can stop worrying about that. However, He does seem to be watching to see if you keep a record of those who have wronged you - perhaps eliminating THAT list should be our greatest concern.
And perhaps if we focus on loving God, others, and ourselves well, sinning against God and others would become a lot less frequent, and the list we all obsess so much about would get a lot shorter. And in the end, if there are still some things on the list, His Grace will be sufficient to cover what remains.
Perhaps we could all humbly admit that God's antidote works better than ours, and start using His instead.