From Your Heart Forgive
Forgive: to cease to feel resentment against (an offender); to give up resentment of or claim to requital
Pardon: to free from penalty
Then came Peter to him, and said, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” (Matthew 18:21) No doubt, Peter considered this to be generous—seven times!
“Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:22) Jesus gives us a hint of the generosity of forgiveness which heaven has available for us, hence the requirement to forgive someone four hundred ninety times for the same offense. Imagine the effect on this disciple, as yet unfilled with the Holy Ghost, upon learning how prodigal an expenditure of full and free forgiveness a child of God can extend and must extend in forgiving a trespass!
“Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.” (Matthew 18:23-24) This was a stupendous sum. Adam Clarke tells us that it probably refers to the gold talent, rather than the silver, and that the amount is 67,500,000 sterling. He goes on to add that this was equal to the annual revenue of the British empire in about 1830 ad. Think of this one man, a servant, so indebted. His position was hopeless.
“But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.” (Matthew 18:25-27) Here we see the wonderful forgiveness that was given and the elements behind it. He was moved with compassion. He loosed him. He forgave him. What an effect should be expected on the one thus forgiven! Surely, as Hezekiah, he should go softly before the One who forgave him for the rest of his years.
“But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.” (Matthew 18:28) A hundred pence, a hundred denarii. Not a trifle when a man could labor all day for a penny, but, Oh! Compared to what he had been forgiven, how small it was!
“And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all.” (Matthew 18:29) It was the same that he himself had said. What it not his turn to be moved with compassion, to loose, to forgive?
“And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?” (Matthew 18:30-33) The point is very plain. The forgiven of God should be (and must be) the most forgiving people on earth.
“And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” (Matt. 18:34-35) If we forgive not men their trespasses, our heavenly Father will not forgive us. Or, if He has already forgiven us, and we accept an unforgiving spirit toward our fellow man, then He will rescind our forgiveness, just as He did with this man in the story that Jesus related.
Forgive: to cease to feel resentment against (an offender); to give up resentment of or claim to requital
A minister was driving along the street and stopped at a traffic light. While he was waiting for the light to change, a woman got in her car and whizzed back into the street down her driveway. She did not look where she was going, and she rammed into the side of the minister’s car. This was unpleasant enough, but it got worse. She jumped out of her car and began to berate the minister, blaming him for the accident. After he went home with his damaged car, her husband called him and began to blame him for the accident as well. This went on for a certain length of time, some days, and the minister testified that he began to chafe under the trial. He said he went to prayer in that chafing condition, and he began to pray that God would rebuke the devil and make that woman and man began to behave themselves. As he began to speak in this way, he said that God stopped him from finishing what he was going to say. Just stopped him! “Hush,” God told him (he related). “People aren’t supposed to treat you right all the time, anyway!” He was rather stunned by this, and he just knelt there, thinking. “People aren’t supposed to treat me right all the time?” He accepted that premise. People aren’t supposed to treat me right all the time. He began to see that God had something for him in this trial. He needed to forgive the woman and the man. He began to pray for grace to be a saint and do right, and thus he began to work the trial, instead of the trial working him.
It is not hard to forgive people if you aren’t really hurt. If they really didn’t bother you, it doesn’t amount to much, and it is easy to say, “Oh, I forgive you.” But if you have seriously been misunderstood or misrepresented, or if you have been the object of real malice or envy, it can put you on your knees, praying for grace to fully and completely forgive. One brother said that he had experienced a need to pray and fast for several days to be sure that he really forgave folks.
There is forgiveness with God. Not only His forgiveness to us of things which stood between us and Him, but there is grace to forgive other men their trespasses against us. There will always be offenses, even when folks mean no offense, for we are simply different and do not understand each other perfectly. Folks will steps on your toes, and you will step on the toes of others, even if you would never purposely do so for anything. How much it means to carry a forgiving attitude! A forbearing attitude! A clear consciousness of how much we have been forgiven will help us to be forgiving. Lord, fill us with meekness! Help us to be as generous and tenderhearted in our forgiving of others as You have been to us.
“And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven us.” (Ephesians 4:32)
“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.” (Colossians 3:13)