Forgive, And You Will Be Forgiven

Jan Smith

Have you ever heard someone say, “I can never forgive what he/she has done!”? There’s usually ample justification for that attitude. But is it the right attitude to have? Here’s what Jesus said about forgiveness:

14 “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matthew 6:14-15)

When I was a small boy, my mother taught me to recite the “Our Father”. This is the wording as I learned it. I have added underlining to emphasize a truth I’m trying to show, that we are called to forgive each other.

Our Father who art in heaven,
Hallowed be Thy name.
   Thy kingdom come.
Thy will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.
   Give us this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we forgive those who trespass against us.
   And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from evil. Amen.

We say those words, but so often it seems we don’t really mean them. Our human nature, prompted heavily by Satan and his demons, tends to keep us thinking horizontally when we should be looking vertically, looking up to God. So we inevitably start asking questions such as, “What if the other person keeps doing it?” The apostle Peter succumbed to that urge, even when he had God in-the-flesh standing right in front of him:

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. (Matthew 18:21-22)

Some quick math reveals: 490 times. But I don’t believe Jesus meant that if we forgave someone 490 times, that when the incident happened for the 491st time that we were free to retaliate. No, Jesus’ response is meant to indicate that we are to forgive an unlimited number of times. In fact, we shouldn’t even be keeping score; we shouldn’t be keeping track of how many times it’s been. Just… forgive. After all, I know I won’t want Jesus to be keeping a tally of how many times He has had to forgive me.

I recall an incident several years ago where a gunman broke into an Amish school. He shot up the place, killing several of the school children. Remember their response? They forgave him.

Regardless of how you view the Amish theology, you have to admire their modeling of this principle from God’s Word: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.” (Matthew 6:15)

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