Forgive

I've been walking through the gospel of John (Message Remix version) in my journal.  something jumped out at me and I decided to post an abridged version.

When Jesus came back to visit the disciples in John 20.22-23 one of the first things he said was

If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive someone’s sins, what are you going to do with them?

If you took just the first sentence, it sounds like by being a disciple you can forgive someone’s sin just as God does. I think that second sentence really makes the difference. If we aren’t willing to forgive someone’s sin, what are we going to do with them?

We need to forgive the sings of everyone, no matter how hard it may be. While this gives me hope for some of the stuff I’ve messed up in life, it also makes me nervous. Do I really forgive someone whose maliciously hurt me or someone I care about? Thankfully, at the moment I can’t really think of many people this may apply to. That doesn’t mean it won’t ever apply.

Really though, what do we do with people we don’t forgive. What’s the alternative to forgiveness? Stay estranged from the person?  Be cordial to them while inside I can only think about how much the wrong they did to me bothers me? Why do I want to live like that? I don’t think Jesus would approve.

Anyway, I thought this was pretty interesting. While it is Jesus and Gods gifts to forgive everyone, it’s also our job to do the same. That’s pretty hard sometimes.

Peace,
+Tom/Bob

posted by Tom at 10:12 PM