“For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and wilful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
15 But if you do not forgive others their trespasses [their reckless and wilful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], neither will your Father forgive you your trespasses.”
Dear people of God, preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ is much easier than practising what it says.
As stated in today’s lead text, how many of us Christians can forgive and give up resentment concerning a WILFUL sin others commit against us?
I once heard the true testimony of a Christian man who married a woman and had 3 kids with her. One day, this married woman left her home and went to co-habit with another man, committing adultery and over many years had 5 additional kids with the other man.
After a time, the married woman’s concubinator died. Then the adulterous woman came back to her husband and begged for forgiveness to be taken back with her 5 kids from the adulterous relationship.
The Christian man who had stayed alone all the years and never entered into another adulterous relationship not only forgave his wife but received her and her 5 kids from the adulterous relationship with the late man.
The story sounds strange but it is true. The man said he did not know why God allowed him to pass through the painful experience, which is why he still forgave his wife and took her in.
In another testimony, I saw a documentary of a woman who narrated her experience during the 100 day 1994 Rwandan genocide perpetrated by extremist Hutus against the Tutsis and moderate Hutus where her neighbour, a Hutu came with others and slaughtered her husband and children.
Years later after the genocide, this same man became a Christian and came to ask for this woman’s forgiveness over his crime.
Not only did this woman forgive but she took repentant man in to live with her as her son.
Dear friend, many Christians pass through very painful experiences at the hands of others and vow never to forgive them. Some go as far as saying they would rather go to hell than forgive, which is contrary to God’s command given to us in today’s lead Holy Bible text above.
Some even plan revenge and carry it out against those who hurt them to the point of killing them to pacify their frayed nerves. Should a Christian do such abominable things against someone who has hurt him or her severely?
The answer is no, dear friend, because a Christian is called to love and not hate, to forgive and not hold grudges.
At this point, someone who is deeply hurt by a painful past experience at the hand of another person or persons may challenge me to ask if I would forgive if I were in his or her own situation.
I would respond by reminding such individual that as far as God is concerned, a Christian has no choice but to forgive the hurts of others against him or her.
If heaven is your goal at the end of your stay here on earth, then you must do what God has commanded – you must forgive whatever anyone has done to hurt you, otherwise you risk an eternal damnation in hell.
Become the Christian God approves and fellow humans have deep regard for. Never forget that your Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ wilfully forgave the insults and torture of His Jewish and Roman tormentors even to the point of dying on the Cross of Calvary – 1 Peter 2:21-23.
The road to heaven is very narrow and only very few find it – Matthew 7:13-14.
May the good Lord bless you as you heed His Word today, act on it and share with others in Jesus’ Most Mercy Name, Amen.
Gabriel Ama.
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