“Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Ephesians 4:32

Forgiveness is an easy idea to preach, but a hard one to practice. When we are betrayed and hurt by people we once trusted, it can be difficult to simply turn the other cheek. But all throughout the Bible, we are told that forgiveness is an essential part of our new life in Christ. If we truly believe that God is sovereign over all, then we will obey His command to forgive. If we trust Him, He will help us to replace our grudges with love. But how?

First, our belief helps us to forgive because we understand how God forgave us. We constantly make mistakes and fail to measure up to God’s plan for our lives, each and every day and yet, He loves us anyway. He is always willing to take us back into His arms and set us on the right path again. If a holy God can forgive sinners like us, then how much more can we forgive those who do wrong to us? Matthew 6:14-15 says, “For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Jesus died for all of our sins; this is undeniably true but, He expects us to give the same love to others as He showed toward us. When we forgive, we reflect the awesome power of Christ in us.

If we believe in God, then we also believe that He knows our hearts. If our hearts are full of anger and bitterness, then how can we claim to love God? 1 John 4:20 says, “If anyone says, ‘I love God,’ and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.” Regardless of how great the offense was, hatred is never justified. Jesus came to bring love and light to the world, in His kingdom, there is no room for hatred.  Sometimes we need to take a step back and remind ourselves that our lives should always be centered around love in every situation.

1 Peter 4:8 says, “Above all, keep loving one another earnestly, since love covers a multitude of sins.” Do we truly believe that love is enough to cover every sin? Do we believe that there is no cut too deep to be healed? If we do, then it will radically change the way that we live. We are called to forgive not once, not twice, but an infinite number of times. The more that we love God, the more we learn to love those around us even our enemies. When we have faith, the same God who forgave us will enable us to forgive others.

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