Forgiveness

Reading from the Book of Luke 6:27-28,
and the Book of Matthew 6:14-15

 ^{Luke 27} “But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
 Matthew ¹⁴ For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. ¹⁵ But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.


Luke 6:27, 28 teaches us how to deal with our enemies. Something is missing when we say that we forgive those who have hurt or offended us and go no further.

God tells us in His Word to forgive others, He does not stop there. He goes on to instruct us to "bless them". The word "bless" means "to speak well of." So one of our problems is though we pray and try to forgive those who offend us, we turn right around and curse them with our tongues or we rehash the offense again and again with others. This will not work.

It is not enough to merely say we forgive others, we must be careful not to curse them or speak evil of them even if we think they deserve it. Instead, we must do as Jesus did and pray for them, bless them, and speak well of them. Why? As we read Matthew 6:15 it is because by doing so, we bless not only them, but will receive blessings ourselves too. Hating those who hurt you is like taking poison and hoping your enemy will die. Obviously, anyone who did that would only be hurting himself. Why spend your life angry at people who probably do not even know or care that you are angry? These people are thoroughly enjoying their lives while you are miserable. Release them, let the offense go, drop it, and have the same attitude toward them that Jesus had toward His enemies.