Jesus commands us to love our enemies. When you stand next to your enemies, your heart pounds, even if you are a good and kind person. You are troubled and have a knot in your heart. If love was feelings, we could not obey God’s commandment. If forgiveness was feelings, we would not be able to obey God’s Word.
Jesus commands us to love our enemies. Loving our enemies means forgiving our enemies.
Matthew 18:21-22
21 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
Peter thought that he was being very gracious in forgiving seven times. He thought that was pretty generous. But Jesus told him to forgive without limits, without measure.
Forgiveness isn’t measured.
If you measure your forgiveness to others, you are already plotting for your revenge. If you are counting how many times your forgiven, it means that you are just waiting for your revenge. That is why we cannot forgive with measure. We cannot count the number of times that we forgive someone else.
If you don’t forgive your brothers, God will not forgive you. But you can’t make someone else receive your forgiveness. If you forgive someone but they reject it, that is not something that you can control. You did your part.
In Matthew 18:22-34, Jesus told a parable about forgiveness. In this parable, the king is God. The first man owed 10,000 talents. That’s over a billion dollars. That is our debt toward God, our sin. God has forgiven us this debt. When your brother or sister sins against you, it’s a mere fraction of the debt that was forgiven you. When you refuse to forgive, it’s like you are putting them into jail. God will judge you for your lack of forgiveness toward your brother or sister.
We have been committing sin since we were in our mother’s womb even until today. Our sin is immeasurable. We commit sin constantly, sometimes on purpose but sometimes unintentionally. But God forgives us that immeasurable debt.
When someone in your life sins against you, forgive. That sin is so slight in comparison to your sin towards God. If God can forgive your great sin, you should be able to forgive their slight sin. If you hold their sin against them, you will bring judgment to your own life.
This man who was forgiven all of this debt tormented a man who owed him very little. He threw him into prison. He thought that his debt was different that the other man’s debt. But the king knew that sin was sin. Debt was debt.
A lot of people think that their sin is much less than someone else’s. They hold other people’s sin against them but forgive themselves freely. They compare their sin to other people’s sin and think that their sin is better than theirs. Ridiculous. Sin is sin.
If you have that attitude, you will put yourself back into a spiritual jail. We have all committed sin before God. Sin is sin. In His eyes, all sin is equal. We all owe Him 10,000 talents but He’s forgiven us all freely and equally.
God bless you,
Pastor Sun East
Read other posts in the “Forgiveness” Series:
Forgiveness is Stable
Forgiveness is the Action of Love
Forgiveness isn’t Measured
Giving and Receiving Forgiveness