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On Forgiveness in Matthew
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Matthew 18 covers a number of basic topics, such as humility, stumbling others, reconciling with the sinning brother, two or three being gathered into His name, forgiveness, settling account, debt, paying back, etc. No doubt, each one is important, interesting and crucial, however, only the subject of forgiveness will be discussed and elaborated here. Forgiveness is a great human virtue. In the Bible the Lord Jesus tells us this matter over and over . In order to have a healthy, normal, harmonious and peaceful life, no matter where we are, sometimes we need, on the one hand, to forgive others, and on the other hand, to be forgiven by others. We human beings are so funny and very easy to offend others, as well as to be offended by others. Even we may agree that offending one another (not in the sense of doing something against the law or the like) is unavoidable in our daily life. When we offend someone, we know we should go to him directly and ask for his forgiveness. But usually we are not willing to do it, as it is a kind of "losing face". Nevertheless, forgiveness and humility are related to each other, according to Matthew 18. This means that we have to humble ourselves first, and then ask for forgiveness. Otherwise, our asking would not be genuine and the reconciliation may not be fully established. Surely, we all realize that this is easier said than done. On the other hand, when someone offends us, and comes to us asking for our forgiveness, many times our hearts are so hardened that we would not like to do it right away. Rather, we would take this opportunity to teach him a lesson. Particularly this is true when it requires not only once, twice but seven times, needless to say seventy times seven (Matt 18:22). But praise the Lord, for the Bible has told us a way to deal with this matter in Luke 17:5 by asking the Lord to increase our faith. When the above situation comes, we should simply turn and cry out to the Lord and tell Him that we need more faith. As we have more faith, it will be easier for us to exercise the virtue of forgiveness. Moreover, we also need to forgive someone from our hearts (Matt 18:35); that is, to forgive him in love, with love and remember no more. In other words, we should forgive and forget. This is God's way. Forgiving without forgetting is not a real forgiving. By the way, what is forgiveness? Forgiveness is none other than the Christ who is living within us. As we need to exercise forgiveness, we simply turn to Him and let Him handle the situation. This is the way to live by Him or live out Him. It will then be spontaneous to express Christ as our forgiveness. There will be no strife or struggle. We just trust and obey Him. As a concluding word, the key point of this kind of exercise is to fully realize that we are so limited and are not able to do this or that. Actually, to know our limitation is not a bad thing at all, but a blessing, even a virtue. The Lord never asks us to fulfill something, rather, He just wants to live Himself out through us. When we recognize from our hearts that we are nothing, we have nothing and we can do nothing, then we may turn to Him and ask Him to do things in His mercy for us. This is His way and the way to live by Him. Bro. Joseph |
