The Necessity of Forgiveness

We have all heard that it is important to forgive. Jesus told a parable about a servant who owed ten thousand talents of gold to his master. By today’s standards, that would be valued in the billions of dollars. His master forgave him of a debt that could never be paid when he pleaded for mercy. However, that servant found a fellow who owed him the equivalent of a hundred days wages and had him put into prison when he couldn’t pay the debt. When his lord heard of it, he treated the man who owed billions with the same standard he held against his peer, and had him committed into prison to give an account for his massive debt.

Jesus ended the parable by saying, “So my heavenly Father will do if each of you, from the heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” Jesus made it clear that we will be judged by the standard we choose. The truth is that we owe a debt of sin that put Jesus on the cross to pay on our behalf; therefore, what sin can others do to us that is greater than this? Even more so, what can be done to us that we have not or would not do to others if the situation were reversed.

When I look at my life, I realize that the good that restrains my behavior is the hand of God working in me, or events in my life that have changed me. If God had left me to my own heart, I would be self-seeking, self-serving, and would disregard others to fulfill my own purposes. Sadly, I still catch myself being self-seeking, self-serving, and disregarding others in my quest to fulfill my own purposes. Who would I be without the restraint God has brought into my life and now into my heart by the Holy Spirit? What if I didn’t have the Spirit and had the power to disregard other people without the fear of consequences? Would I be any different than those who I recognize as evil? I would like to say, “No,” but if I examine my past behavior honestly, I have to acknowledge that the quest for self produces evil in my own life.

There is a saying that absolute power corrupts, absolutely. This is true. It is only the restraining force around us that keeps us from corruption. For the Christian, it is the Holy Spirit within us, the fear of the Lord that causes us to reconsider and look toward wisdom, and the accountability of others. Even with these factors, we can still lose focus when opportunity crosses our paths.

When I was in the army and stationed in Germany, I went to a church off post. It was an American church and had members from several different areas. I became friends with a man who seemed very mild mannered. I found out he was a captain in the army, but that was all I knew about his professional life. I had another friend who was going through a hard time in the military. His unit was on the verge of mutiny. His commander was a tyrant who made numerous rules and unreasonable punishments. It was so bad that the army sent investigators into the unit to identify the problem and orchestrate a resolution. Two-thirds of his unit was in the process of non-judicial punishment. Non-judicial punishment is when a soldier is punished without having to stand trial in a court-martial.

He would tell these horror stories of his unit working in the heat and being given permission to take off their coats and work in t-shirts. The commander would come by and declare punishments for everyone wearing a t-shirt without a coat. Soldiers would be punished for obeying the orders of their sergeants without having the opportunity to conform to the will of the commander. Time wouldn’t permit me to go through the things he did to these soldiers.

One day at church, this captain mentioned that his unit was going through an investigation and he needed prayer. Instantly I made the connection and asked what unit he commanded. It was the unit of my friend. I was shocked. How could this mild mannered man transform into such a tyrant on Monday morning? Power. During my military life, I witnessed many kind individuals transform into monsters when they were promoted into authority, or put into a position where soldiers were dependent on them for a need.

This is the nature of the flesh. We all have the ability to abuse our authority or serve our selfishness at the expense of others. And the truth is that we are usually blind to our own faults. Just as this tyrannical commander sought God’s guidance through the difficulty of being investigated, thinking that he wasn’t the cause of the problem, we also fall into the same fault in our own lives. The level of our fault depends on the level of our opportunity. This is why we are warned throughout scripture to examine ourselves, and act with agape (love). Agape is a love that seeks to put others ahead of ourselves. This is not something we produce through the flesh, but it is the love of God poured into our hearts by the Holy Spirit (Romans 5:5).

Only those walking in the Spirit have the promise that the cravings of the flesh won’t control their lives (Galatians 5:16). God has to open our eyes, and this only comes to the heart that seeks him. Part of that seeking is obedience – including forgiveness. When we are too proud to see our own need and propensity to sin, we won’t recognize what we are being delivered from, and we won’t forgive those who wrong us.

This is nothing new to our generation. As he left the churches at the end of his final missionary journey, the Apostle Paul warned the church that after his departure, wolves would arise from their own congregations and seek to draw disciples after themselves (Acts 20:29). The key is ‘themselves’. Self always seeks to be served, but is brought under subjection through obedience to the word of God. When the church appointed the first six deacons (Acts 6:5), they identified Nicolas as someone they believed to be full of the Holy Spirit, yet this man later started a movement that focused on his own authority. This movement placed the spiritual elite as rulers over the church. In the letters to the churches found in Revelation 2, Jesus said twice that he hated the doctrine of the Nicolatians – the very movement that arose from the appointment of Nicolas.

Look also at 3 John 1:9-10

⁹ I wrote to the church, but Diotrephes, who loves to have the preeminence among them, does not receive us.

¹⁰ Therefore, if I come, I will call to mind his deeds which he does, prating against us with malicious words. And not content with that, he himself does not receive the brethren, and forbids those who wish to, putting them out of the church.

The apostles were kicked out of one of the churches that they started when Diotrephes took his leadership and turned it into a dictatorship. In all likelihood, this man was appointed by the apostles because of his ability to lead and knowledge of the scriptures, but he turned out to be a man living for the flesh instead of someone led by the Spirit.

So what does corrupt leadership have to do with forgiveness? I stated all of this with the goal to show that the tendency to become self-serving resides in all of us. Self-examination and God-focused prayer as we study the word is how our eyes are opened and we are rescued from our own weaknesses. When we are wronged, forgiveness is not merely trying to accept our hurt feelings, but realizing that we are in the same battle. If we are not doing the same thing, it is because we have recognized the fault in our own lives and allowed God to lead us away from our selfish motives. We must be thankful that our eyes have been opened, recognize our dependence on God to keep us from falling into the same pit, and praying for God to do the same in the lives of those who wrong us. We continue to need deliverance from our weakness; therefore, we must forgive so that God will show us mercy.

Being wronged cannot justify bitterness. We are commanded to forgive and guard our hearts. If our heart falls to bitterness, our spiritual lives fall into disarray. Not only do we step out of the mercies of God, but we become our own oppressors. Oppression from without cannot destroy our faith, but oppression from within destroys everything. Bitterness exalts us into becoming our own oppressor. Look at this passage in James 5:1-11

¹ Come now, you rich, weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!

² Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are moth-eaten.

³ Your gold and silver are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.

⁴ Indeed the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

⁵ You have lived on the earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

⁶ You have condemned, you have murdered the just; he does not resist you.

⁷ Therefore be patient, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the early and latter rain.

⁸ You also be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand.

⁹ Do not grumble against one another, brethren, lest you be condemned. Behold, the Judge is standing at the door!

¹⁰ My brethren, take the prophets, who spoke in the name of the Lord, as an example of suffering and patience.

¹¹ Indeed we count them blessed who endure. You have heard of the perseverance of Job and seen the end intended by the Lord -- that the Lord is very compassionate and merciful.

If you are like me, you’ve read this dozens of times and looked at this from the perspective of those evil rich oppressors. However, the warning against the rich is not the focus of this passage. It sets up the instruction of God’s people beginning in verse 7. From this verse on, the Bible is instructing you. Even though you may be wronged or oppressed, or hurt, God’s command to you is to be patient and establish your heart.

Your focus is never to be on those who wrong you, but on the Lord and establishing your heart in his ways. Verses one through eight serve no other purpose than to let you know that there is a day of reckoning, and it is not for you to concern yourself with retaliation or fretting over the actions of those who wrong you. This passage focuses on the rich because this is the situation the church was dealing with, but it applies to any situation in which we are powerless to stop the wrongs of another.

We can either surrender our hearts to anger and bitterness, allowing them to corrupt us with the oppressor, or we can establish our hearts by faith in the Lord. This goes with the instructions found in 1 Peter 2:19-23

¹⁹ For this is commendable, if because of conscience toward God one endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

²⁰ For what credit is it if, when you are beaten for your faults, you take it patiently? But when you do good and suffer, if you take it patiently, this is commendable before God.

²¹ For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps:

²² "Who committed no sin, Nor was deceit found in His mouth";

²³ who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously;

Jesus said that when we are persecuted and suffer wrongfully, the kingdom of Heaven belongs to us. So the picture that is being painted by scripture is that wrongs will happen. In fact, the Bible says that any who desire to live godly will suffer persecution. But if we take it patiently, we are commended by God, who sees all, and will reward us for our faithfulness and reward the evildoer according to his works. The things we suffer are thankworthy, for they put us into the blessing of God. But there is a condition to all of this. Forgiveness. There is no reward for those who cannot forgive when they are wronged. James compares this to a farmer, who patiently waits for the fruit of his crop to develop until the time of the harvest. We can’t expect instant success, deliverance, or vengeance. We wait patiently, committing ourselves to God who judges righteously, and establish our hearts in the Lord.

Keep in mind that many who persecuted Jesus and participated in his crucifixion later became disciples of Christ. He committed his wrong to the Father, who led his oppressors toward repentance, and judged those who rebelled against the cross. The same is true for you. Part of forgiveness is committing the person into the merciful hands of God, knowing (and hoping) for repentance so they can find mercy as we have.

Don’t be a Jonah Christian. Jonah resented the mercy of God. He wanted the Ninevites destroyed. He did not want to preach the word to them because he was afraid that they would repent and find mercy. God showed pity and said the people were wicked, and were unable to distinguish their right and from their left. In other words, they were incapable of knowing the right way and were dependent on God’s mercy and his revelation of truth in their hearts.

That is the description of mankind. Look at Romans 3:10-17

¹⁰ As it is written: "There is none righteous, no, not one;

¹¹ There is none who understands; There is none who seeks after God.

¹² They have all turned aside; They have together become unprofitable; There is none who does good, no, not one."

¹³ "Their throat is an open tomb; With their tongues they have practiced deceit"; "The poison of asps is under their lips";

¹⁴ "Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness."

¹⁵ "Their feet are swift to shed blood;

¹⁶ Destruction and misery are in their ways;

¹⁷ And the way of peace they have not known."

This is you and I before Christ. This is the heart of our oppressors without Christ. This is also the weakness of the flesh and the fruit that is produced in the lives of those who are walking according to the flesh. The unforgiving heart is establishing itself in the flesh and cannot see the fruit of the Spirit – until there is submission to God’s call to obey and show mercy.

The great irony is that we as Christians are called to show mercy to the merciless, trusting God to accomplish his mighty work through us and in the lives of our enemies. When we are hurt or oppressed, that person is indebted to us because of their transgression, but we, as disciples of Christ, release that debt to God as an act of mercy and forgiveness. God then produces mercy in our lives, and justice in theirs. That justice may be executed on the cross if they repent, or they may be judged with their sins. Our enemies, like us, are dependent on the mercies of God.

In my life, I have come to the realization (and continue to work toward this) that I look at my life from my own perspective. By nature, we have a self-centered worldview. I naturally judge everything based on how it makes ‘me’ feel. If something happens to me that gives me an advantage that others don’t have, I’m happy. If someone else gets an advantage, it’s not fair. Indeed, I measure all things based on my benefit or comfort.

Spiritual growth and maturity leads me to a standard that is counter to my inborn nature. I am called to look at life through the eyes of faith. I’m called to release all things into the hands of God, trusting the Lord of all to do what is right and judge the thought and intent of the heart. I’m called to faith, where I concern myself with one thing, am I walking in the will of God? If I have the promise that the Kingdom of Heaven is mine, and the promise that the righteous shall inherit the earth, why do I allow myself to fret over something lost that will pass away, or circumstances that have no eternal significance?

If I follow my human nature (the flesh), I’m allowing a temporal, worthless benefit or wrong to rob me of something eternal. Most Christians forfeit the promises of God because they are unwilling to let go of a wrong or what they perceive as an injustice. We are warned not to allow anyone to cheat us out of our rewards, but the greatest robbery comes from our own self-centered ways. We live according to the flesh, and mix a little bit of faith into our lives, thinking we are doing God a service. What we are doing is sidetracking our lives away from the best God has for us.

Daily, we have to remind ourselves to walk in the Spirit and maintain an eternal perspective. Forgive and establish your hearts in the Lord and his righteousness. Then wait for the Lord to produce the fruit of his plan in your life. Let it be for your reward. Either it’s your work in the flesh, or it’s the Lord’s work producing the fruit of the Spirit in your life. Stand on his word, there is no other eternal foundation. Establish your heart in faith by determining to be a man or woman after God’s own heart. The temporal things will be resolved in God’s way and timing as we learn to walk in the way of righteousness.

On the cross, Jesus looked at his enemies. The Pharisees falsely accused him, mocked him and rejoiced in his sufferings. The Romans beat him, dressed him in royal clothing, mocked him, forced him to carry his cross, and then drove the nails into his hands and feet. Jesus looked down from the cross and saw foolish men whose only perspective was through the flesh. He prayed, “Father, forgive them. For they don’t know what they are doing.”

Let this mind be in you when you forgive. Anyone who is living life in the flesh can’t understand and do not know what they are doing. Judgment for sin only comes when God pulls back the veil of our blindness to reveal truth to man (Romans 1:18-19, 2 Thessalonians 2:10-12). Until God reveals the truth of righteousness to us, we cannot see our own faults; therefore, we must recognize this need in others. Forgive, for people do not know what they are doing, and pray for God to open their eyes – and your eyes.