Forgiveness

...and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. --Colossians 3:13

...and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us...

We are commanded to forgive others. We are to forgive, because Christ forgave us. And Christ forgave so much more than we will ever be called upon to forgive. But, as the Lord's Prayer shows, if we expect Christ to forgive us we should forgive others.

How can we, being forgiven, refuse to forgive? I wonder if there isn't an element of pride at work. We think we deserve to be treated better, even though we probably don't deserve to be treated so well. And so we expect the other to ask forgiveness, to say sorry, to just acknowledge their wrongdoing. It would be so much easier to forgive then. But to forgive before there's even been a suggestion that forgiveness is needed? Pah.

We blow things completely out of proportion, taking little things which may well have been meant with all the good will in the world, and turning them into a major crime against our most righteous personages. We do this to our shame. We're not righteous personages.

How many things have we done, without realizing, that required forgiveness? How many little things have we done to others which have caused animosity to rise in their breast like it is rising in ours now? How many people have forgiven us?

If we are to expect others to forgive us—and we do expect others to forgive us, and others normally do forgive us—we should extend the same courtesy to others.

I'd be lying if I tried to say that forgiving was easy—I am beginning to learn that it is not—but forgiving is essential. And so I will learn, am learning, to forgive.

It is a lesson that needs to be learnt.