Random Thoughts

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About love, forgiveness, divine grace, and finding our lives in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of prayer and quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.

• We are united with Christ not by reason of our faith but by reason of His Incarnation. What we do with that is a matter of faith. We can rebel against it, but we cannot undo it.
• Funny thing. The more I consider Christ, the more my theology changes in conformity to Him ... and that seems to be confusing for some people.
• The judgment of God does not come to condemn us but to restore us. Not to enslave us but to set us free.
• Christ is God’s Yes to us. Faith echoes Amen.
• The Resurrection of Christ shows that the love of God is truly unconditional, for not even death can stop it.
• Eternal life. Eternal love. Same thing.
• We live continually in the presence of Divine Love.
• Whatever it is for which you would be rewarded, that you must beware.
• The confession that Jesus is Lord is a form of anarchy, for it means that Caesar is not.
• If you would see the kingdom of God, forgive one another.
• God always gets the last word, and it is a good word: Love.
• If ever there was a time when God hated anyone, even for a moment, it would be His undoing, for God is love.
• If you are seeking Christ, you will find Him in the middle of your mess and at the bottom of your ditch.
• Faith is not about certainty but about trust.
• Lord, keep me from being part of the strife but make me a part of the peace. Amen.
• Thank God, nothing depends on our certainty.
• Christ is God’s elect who, by the Incarnation, has become one with all of humanity.
• Believe the life of Christ in you.
• Christ is our only true reality. In Him we live and move and have our being, and in Him all things hold together. Everything that moves away from Him moves towards nothing.
• Christ inhabits every broken story until all the world is mended.
• Christian theology does not begin with philosophy or theological abstraction but with the concrete revelation of God in Jesus Christ through the Holy Spirit.
• Christ is not only God’s Yes to us, He is also our Yes to God.
• Christ did not come to institute a new moralism but to give us New Life.
• When the brokenness of sin meets the faithfulness of Christ? No contest. When the power of death meets the life of Christ? No contest. Sin and death were doomed by the Incarnation, when God became one with us.
• The Incarnation means that whatever is true of Christ in his humanity is true of us in ours. But it also means that we partake of his divinity and become by grace what Christ is by nature.
• Christ is God’s humanity and our divinity.
• Christ is the image of the invisible God, in whom all the fullness of divinity dwells in bodily form, and in whom we are made complete and become partakers of the divine nature.
• Christ is the True Light who gives light to everyone in the world. Faith is an awakening to the light of Christ within us.
• Sometimes my failures all gang up and fool me about who I am. Sometimes my successes do, too.
• Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us ... for we are all in the same boat.
• We are holy not by keeping a moral code but because God has chosen us in Christ through the Incarnation. It is by faith that we embrace this holiness.
• If it comes down to a choice between prayer and politics, I’ve seen what both can do. I will choose prayer. Every time.
• The gospel means there is nothing so broken that it cannot be mended, for Christ is making all things new.
• Prayer is not a way of escaping the reality of the world but of becoming more deeply aligned with it.

More random thoughts …

Random Thoughts

Thoughts culled from my random file, gathered from my Twitter tweets, Facebook updates and Instagrams. About love, forgiveness, glory, divine grace, and finding our lives in Christ. Some have come to me in moments of prayer and quiet reflection, some in interaction with others. Offered as “jump starts” for your faith.

• When we are unwilling to forgive, we put up a roadblock to what God wants to do in us and in the world.
• If we are not ready to forgive those who have sinned against us, we are not ready to pray the prayer Jesus taught us.
• The ability to truly forgive others is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
• To forgive others requires repentance on our part. On our own, we do not wish to forgive, so we must turn our soul toward God, who alone can work that miracle in us.
• Faith is not so much about certainty as it is about trust.
• Haters are gonna hate. Lovers are gonna love. Which will you be?
• If a literal reading of the Old Testament contradicts the revelation of God in Jesus Christ, then the literal reading must give way.
• The Christian life is one shaped by the death and resurrection of Christ.
• If we are disappointed in others on Jesus’ behalf, we probably need to spend more time with Jesus, who is not disappointed in any of us — he came to rescue all of us.
• The light of Christ shines in every human being and the darkness cannot overcome it.
• There is nothing that could ever put to shame the love Christ has for us.
• Sin is not a broken law but a broken relationship — with God, with each other, with creation, even within our own selves. Christ came to turn us back to God and each other, to restore all of creation and make us whole.
• Jesus entered into our darkness and faced down the accuser of our souls. He is our light.
• The light of God does not come to condemn us but to free us from our darkness.
• Salvation is not so much a matter of destination but of transformation by the divine fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• True repentance, the turning of the soul toward God, is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
• The love of God, wisdom of God, justice of God, holiness of God — these are all one. For God is one, and God is love.
• There is no us and them in Christ. There is only the union of all things in heaven and on earth.
• The ability to see things from a different perspective is a miracle, a gift of God’s grace.
• The love, mercy and grace of God are with us always, without limitation or condition.
• You are created in the image of God, and there is nothing you can do that could ever change that. It is the truth about who you are.
• All humankind is summed up in Jesus Christ, in whom God became one with us — even in all our brokenness.
• Discipleship is learning to live in the reality of King Jesus.
• Discipleship is learning to live in the divine fellowship of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
• Discipleship is learning to live in the fullness of God and our completeness in Jesus Christ.
• Lord my rest, teach me Your way, the simplicity of Your love.

More random thoughts …

As We Have Forgiven Our Debtors?

Here are a few thoughts I had from a recent discussion I was in concerning the petition for forgiveness in the Lord’s Prayer: “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthews 6:12).

Some have proposed that the Lord’s Prayer — the prayer Jesus taught His disciples to pray — is for those who are under the law and does not apply to those who are not. Some even suggest that is it not for Christians today but for some future tribulation period. However, that raises a few questions:

• First, where do we find anything in the Law to the effect of what Matthew 6:12 says? This petition does not seem to me to be specific to the Law, or even about the Law in a general way.
• Second, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus also spoke about murder and adultery, and seems to “raise the bar” in regard to the way many thought about them in those days (and still often do today). Does that mean that what He said about those things are not pertinent for us today? Hardly.
• Third, as I consider the other petitions in that prayer, none of them appear to be about the Law. So why should we suppose that the petition about forgiveness should be understood as being about the Law, when the others are not?
• Fourth, where do we find any hint that this is only for saints enduring the tribulation period? I don’t see that anywhere in the rest of the Sermon on the Mount, or even in the larger context.

One of the significant things I have found as I have searched the Law of Moses is that it does not appear to address the issue of us forgiving others for their sins against us, much less relating our forgiveness of others with God’s forgiveness of us. On the other hand, as I consider the Gospels, I find quite a bit of Jesus’ teaching is about forgiving others. And I think that tells us something important about the kingdom of God.

The Lord’s Prayer is a kingdom prayer: “Thy kingdom come ... Thine is the kingdom,” it says. It is not only about being forgiven ourselves, it is also about us forgiving each other. This forgiveness is about fellowship, not just our fellowship with God but also our fellowship with each other. This is about the kingdom of God, and that kingdom has already begun through Jesus, God's Messiah King.

The Lord’s Prayer does not allow us to think merely individualistically about our relationship with God and whatever He is doing. Rather, it teaches us how we are to live together as the community of God’s people. We do not address, “My Father,” but “Our Father.” It is not merely, “Give me this day my daily bread,” but “Give us this day our daily bread.” And the petition for forgiveness is not simply, “Forgive me my debts,” but “Forgive us our debts.” It is quite appropriate, then, that Jesus adds these words: “as we also have forgiven our debtors.”

Seventy Times Seven

In the fragmented way we often read Bible passages, we usually do not hear how they resonate together, though they may be separated by many centuries. For example, take the case of Lamech, and how he rationalized killing another man:

Then Lamech said to his wives: “Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, listen to my speech! For I have killed a man for wounding me, even a young man for hurting me. If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then Lamech seventy-sevenfold.” (Genesis 4:23-24)

In the Septuagint (aka, LXX), which is an ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, the words for “seventy-sevenfold” are hebdomekontakis hepta.

Now contrast this with Matthew 18, where Peter asks the Lord Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” (v. 21). Do you remember Jesus’ answer? “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (v. 22).

First, notice that Peter asks about forgiving his brother “seven times” (Greek, heptakis). Lamech spoke of Cain (who killed his brother, Abel, remember) being avenged “sevenfold” (in the LXX, heptakis). Peter is on to something here though he does not yet realize how far it is to extend.

But see how Jesus sets aside Peter’s limitations and says, “No, seventy times seven.” The Greek words are hebdomekontakis hepta, the same as in the old Greek translation of Genesis 4:24. These are the only two places in the Bible where this phrase is found. However, see how Jesus’ use of it brings a reversal.
In Genesis 4, Lamech’s use demonstrates how justified he felt in killing another man. “Seventy times seven” was the measure of how much his vengeance was worth. But on Jesus’ lips, “seventy times seven” is no longer about vengeance but forgiveness.

King Jesus overturns old paradigms and sets things right side up.

A Storehouse of Faith

“Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks,” Jesus said (Matthew 12:34). Then He talked about the storehouse of the heart. If we store up good things in our hearts, that is what will come out; if we store up evil things then evil will come out (v. 35; see What’s In Your Storehouse?). Now, let me show you one reason why this is so important. Consider the words of Jesus in Mark 11:22-25.

Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses.

See the dynamic of the heart and the mouth, how they word together? If you have faith in God and do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will be done, you words become very powerful, even to the moving of mountains. But notice what must be in your heart in abundance — not just in your heart, but in your heart in abundance? Faith! Yes, it starts like a mustard seed, but like a mustard seed, when you plant it, it grows (see Faith is a Seed). When faith is in your heart in abundance, and your mouth speaks out of the abundance of your heart, that is a powerful combination.

So where does faith come from, and how to you get it into your heart in abundance? Paul said that “faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God” (Romans 10:17). When God speaks, things happen, and God always keeps His Word. When we give our attention to the Word of God, to meditate on it, and when we let it instruct our hearts and change our thinking, the Spirit of God works through that. Faith in God begins to rise up within us. As we continue meditating the Word, faith begins to fill our hearts in abundance. Then, when we speak, and our words are in alignment with the Word of God, they come forth with the force of faith. Things we thought improbable, or even impossible, begin to happen.

But there is also something else that must fill our heart, and that is forgiveness. We must be willing to forgive everyone we have anything against. It is no coincidence that Jesus speaks of forgiveness immediately after He talks about faith-filled words and prayer. No, it is integral to the operation of faith.

When Jesus told Peter and the disciples that they must forgive “seventy times seven,” they said, “Lord, increase our faith” (Luke 17:4-5). They realized that real forgiveness requires the power of faith. However, Jesus teaches us that the opposite is also true: powerful faith requires a heart of forgiveness. They must go together. If we do not have the faith to forgive then we do not have the faith to move mountains. Paul tells us that even if we did have faith to move mountains, but do not have love, then we are nothing and our accomplishments are in vain (1 Corinthians 13:2).

This brings us, then, to a third thing we must have in our hearts in abundance: Love. In a religious dispute that was taking place in the first-century Church over a ritual issue, Paul concluded, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision avails anything, but faith working through love” (Galatians 5:6).

There it is. Faith works through love. That is, faith is activated, energized, made effective, through love. If faith worked without love, we would soon destroy the world. Imagine the debris that would litter the highways as people charged their road rage with the power of faith. No, there must be love if we are to have mountain-moving faith. Indeed, love is the most important. “Now abide faith, hope, love, these three,” Paul said, “But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians 13:13).

Out of the storehouse of the heart the mouth speaks. When faith, forgiveness and love fill your heart in abundance, your words will become very powerful. Mountains will move.

What's in your storehouse?

(See also Faith Comes by Hearing and How to Forgive by Faith)

The Kingdom of Forgiveness on Earth

Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

Peter thought he would be doing pretty good to forgive someone seven times. Jewish rule required only three times, while Peter was offering seven times. But he was asking a loaded question — and it backfired on him!

“Seven times isn’t nearly enough, Peter. Try seventy times seven” (my paraphrase). Jesus wasn’t quantifying forgiveness (forgive 490 times). No, He was saying that there is no limit to forgiveness. Then to drive the point home, He likened the matter of forgiveness to the kingdom of Heaven on Earth — it is vital to our relationship with our heavenly Father.

Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. And when he had begun to settle accounts, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made. The servant therefore fell down before him, saying, “Master, have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt. (Matthew 18:23-27)

See how great a debt this man was forgiven. Ten thousand talents was an enormous amount of money. One talent equaled about 6,000 denarii; ten thousand talents was worth 60 million denarii. A denarius was about one day’s wage. If a man labored every day of his life, he would have to work over 164,000 years to pay off such a debt. But that is how much this steward owed his master — and that is how much he was forgiven.

Now, we ought to think that one who was forgiven such a debt would be willing, out of love, respect and gratitude toward his master, to forgive the debt owed him by another. But such is not the case.

But that servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and he laid hands on him and took him by the throat, saying, “Pay me what you owe!” So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and begged him, saying, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you all.” And he would not, but went and threw him into prison till he should pay the debt. (Matthew 18:28-30)

This steward, who was forgiven the debt of 60 million denarii, was completely unwilling to forgive the debt of 100 denarii (one 600,000th of what he himself had been forgiven). The forgiveness of his master did not penetrate his heart. He did not let even a tiny bit of the kindness shown to him flow through him to someone else.

So when his fellow servants saw what had been done, they were very grieved, and came and told their master all that had been done. Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?” And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. (Matthew 18:31-34)

The master had forgiven the great debt owed him, but he did expect that the compassion he showed his servant would be reciprocated toward others. As Paul said, “Owe no man anything except to love one another” (Romans 13:8). That is the only proper debt we should have. Because of his unwillingness to forgive, the servant reaped a hard harvest of suffering and shame.

Now consider carefully Jesus’ conclusion to the matter:

So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses. (Matthew 18:35)

Notice that forgiveness is first a matter of the heart. God has forgiven us a great debt, more than we could ever pay, and He intends for it to work throughout our heart like the leaven of love. When we are unwilling to forgive others, we are rejecting the work God wants to do in us, instead of letting divine love have its perfect way. God will not let up on us until we repay the debt of love and forgive those who have sinned against us.

Do not hinder the flow of forgiveness from heaven to earth. Let your love and forgiveness be without limits, and so let the heartbeat of your heavenly Father change the world through you. It is vital to the manifestation of the kingdom of Heaven on Earth.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Authentic Prayer Requires a Forgiving Heart

For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Matthew 6:14-15)

The prayer model Jesus gave His disciples said, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Now He gives the matter special attention. I believe this is because unwillingness to forgive is one of the most powerful hindrances to prayer. Eugene Peterson, in The Message, gives his commentary on this passage: “In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can’t get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others.”

Jesus also addresses unforgiveness in another place, in the same context where He teaches the disciples about mountain-moving prayer and faith:

Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:22-25)

As powerful and effective prayer and faith are, even to the moving of mountains, if we do not forgive others, we are not in a position for God to hear us. When we do not forgive others, we are still in unrepentance and not yet ready to receive forgiveness. But when we do forgive others, we are better able to hear the Father’s heart and pray in agreement with it. For His desire is to forgive, and when we pray in agreement with His will, we can know that He hears us, and knowing that He hears us, we can know that we will receive whatever we ask (1 John 5:14-15).

Authentic prayer requires a forgiving heart.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Forgiving Ourselves

Over the past few years, I have written a number of articles on forgiveness and forgiving others (see About Forgiveness). Unforgiveness — unwillingness to forgive others — is a prevalent scheme of the devil, and a great hindrance to prayer and faith. But I am discovering that, very often, forgiving ourselves is the hardest one to do.

Recently I was talking with a woman who called our ministry. She was very distraught about her life, and also very angry. But her anger was not at other people; she was able to forgive everyone who had hurt or betrayed her. But she now realized that she had come to this point in her life because of her own actions and choices, and she was very angry with herself.

She needs to forgive herself.

Reflecting on this, I have been asking the Lord why we often find it so hard to forgive ourselves. The answer I heard back was that we need to believe the gospel more, to trust that God has forgiven us in Jesus Christ.

All our sinful actions and choices were taken up by the Lord Jesus and nailed to the cross. He was made sin for us, though He himself never sinned, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). That is, in Him, through faith in Him, we are made righteous before God. Our sins are forgiven, done away with, and it is God’s own righteousness that is now at work in us.

We may have gotten ourselves into some terrible messes, but Jesus came to get us out and put us on track with the wonderful purpose God has for us. We receive this forgiveness, this deliverance, this salvation, through faith in Jesus Christ. If God has forgiven us, then we can forgive ourselves.

Beyond Forgiveness to Blessing

You have heard that it was said, “You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.” But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. (Matthew 5:43-45)

Some Christians think that you don’t have to forgive unless the other person has apologized. But in the sermon on the mount, Jesus blows that idea out of the water. He tells us to love our enemies. He tells us to bless those who curse us. He tells us to do good to those who hate us. He tells us to pray for those who spitefully use us.

These are obviously not people who have repented and apologized to us, and yet, we are called to do much more than forgive them. To forgive means that we let go of the offense someone has perpetrated against us. We give up the right for pay-backs or revenge. We forgive, not just for their sake, but for ours as well. By releasing the offender, we release ourselves from the offense, and are no longer held back by it — we are free to move forward with our lives.

But it is not enough to take a neutral position, simply to refrain from hating our enemies, cursing those who curse us, doing ill toward those who hate us, and being spiteful to those who use us. Such restraint is wise and healthy and good. But much more is required of those who follow Jesus.

Now, someone will say, “But you don’t understand what so and so did to me.” And maybe I don’t. But Jesus does, for He was mocked and scorned and nailed to a cross. And He tells you to love and bless your enemies.

Yes, it is very difficult — even impossible — to live that way. In our own strength, we cannot do it at all. We need divine assistance. That’s why Jesus adds, “that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.” The essence of fatherhood is inheritance, which means that a son is like his father. Our Father in heaven shows love and forgiveness even to those who hate Him. They may reject that love and forgiveness and so never enjoy His blessing, but that is because of their own unbelief and rebellion, not because the Father is unwilling.

And indeed, we might love our enemy and it won’t make one bit of difference to them. We might bless those who curse us, and find that they curse us still. We might do good for those who just continue to hate us. We might pray for the sake of those who spitefully use us, and they may yet persecute us.

No matter. It is the nature of the sons of God to manifest the character of our Father in heaven. Now, that is not how we become the sons of the Father. We become His sons through faith in Jesus Christ. “But as many as received Him [Jesus], to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name” (John 1:12). Through faith in Him, we are born again, born from above, by the Spirit of God. It is through the power of the Holy Spirit that we can begin to forgive, love and bless our enemies. When we do, we demonstrate that we truly are sons of the Father, because that is what He does. Indeed, we have the authority and power to act that way precisely because we are His children.

As children of God, we have the right to display His love, His grace, and even His power to the world. Jesus invites us to move past our own resources and step into divine sonship with Him, to let the love of the Father be revealed in and through us. It is a radical shift for us, but that is why He has given us the Holy Spirit. It is in this divine empowerment that we learn, not only how to forgive, but to move beyond forgiveness to blessing.

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The Kingdom of Heaven on Earth
Keys to the Kingdom of God
in the Gospel of Matthew
by Jeff Doles

Preview with Amazon’s “Look Inside.”

Available in paperback and Kindle (Amazon), epub (Google and iTunes) and PDF.

Is It Always Right to Forgive?

Many Christians believe that they don’t have to forgive someone else until they apologize. In fact, some Christians even think it would be wrong to forgive someone else until they apologize. They use Luke 17:3-4 to argue their point:

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, “I repent,” you shall forgive him.

But what they miss is that Jesus is not, at this moment, focusing on the offender’s need to repent; He is addressing the disciples and their need to forgive. “Take heed to yourselves,” He says. Regardless of what someone else may have done against us, the point of greatest concern is not whether they have repented, but whether we have forgiven.

Our forgiveness of others is not based on whether they repent. Iit is based on faith. The disciples realized what Jesus was calling them to do, for they said, “Lord, increase our faith” (v. 5). It is at that point that Jesus spoke to them about faith as a mustard seed.

On another occasion, Peter asked Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I do not say up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22). Notice again that Jesus’ focus was not on the repentance of the offender but on the forgiveness of the disciples.

In another place, in a teaching on prayer and faith, Jesus said, “Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him” (Mark 11:25). Our forgiveness is not conditioned on whether the offender has repented, but whether we have anything against anyone (these parameters are pretty inclusive). If we do, then our duty is clear: we must forgive.

Jesus said, “Love your enemies and bless them.” How can you love your enemies without extending forgiveness to them? How can you bless them, if you are unforgiving? But if they are your enemies, they have not yet repented and apologized, or else they would no longer be at enmity with you. Yet, Jesus tells us to love them anyway. Not only to love them, but to bless them, as well. That requires forgiveness.

That is how Jesus Himself lived, all the way to the end. When He was being nailed to the cross, He prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they don’t know what they are doing.” Here were the enemies of Jesus, putting Him to death. Not only were they not apologetic, they did not even realize what they were doing. There was no repentance or compunction in them. Yet, Jesus cried out to the Father to forgive them.

Or consider Stephen. He was stoned by the synagogue council for teaching and preaching Jesus. As he lay dying, he cried out to the Father, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” His last words were forgiveness for those who were in still in the act of killing him. They had no repentance, showed no remorse, offered no apology.

It is always right to forgive others, to love your enemies and bless them — even if they have not repented. In fact, it is required of all who would be disciples of Jesus.

Either Way—Forgive!

Someone asked my grandmother, when thoughts of offenses they received in the past come to mind, is it God or is it the devil who is reminding them? My grandmother replied, “Who cares? Either way, the answer is to forgive.”

Exactly right!

If God is bringing it to mind, it is because we need to forgive. If it is the devil bringing it to mind, it is because he wants to ensnare us in thoughts of how we were so terribly mistreated. He wants to entangle us in feelings of past hurts and keep us offended. For offense is a stumbling-block, and when we are offended, we are tripped up — unable to move forward. So if it is indeed the devil reminding us of past offenses, we can short-circuit his plan by forgiving — and moving on.

As often as the thought of past offenses comes up in your heart, forgive.

(See also Don’t Let the devil Outsmart You.)

Forgiving and Being Forgiven

Someone wrote to ask “Does your church believe in the literal interpretation of what Jesus taught in Gospels that people need to repent before forgiveness is given and woe comes to those who cause offenses?” He then cited Luke 17:1-4; Luke 18:1-8 and Matthew 5:21-26. Here is my response:

Jesus came preaching, "Repent and believe, for the kingdom of God is at hand." We believe, therefore, that people need to repent and believe. The Greek word for "repent" means to have a change of mind, to think differently. We need to change our thinking about a lot of things—sin, our self-dependence, living like the kingdom of God is not here — and start thinking in line with what God says. In other words, we repent (change our mind) in order to believe God.

A word often related to repentance is the word "confess." For example, "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). The Greek word for "confess" is homologeo (from homo = “same” and logos = “word”). Literally, it means to "say the same thing." That is, when we confess our sins, we are saying of them the same thing God says of them, recognizing that they do not belong in our lives. It is a result of repentance.

Before repentance, we were thinking contrary to God and denying that our sin created a barrier between us. After repentance, we are thinking with God and saying the same thing about our sin that He said. We are acknowledging the problem so that we may then embrace the solution — forgiveness and cleansing by the blood of Jesus Christ.

Does woe come to those who cause offenses? Certainly. It is a matter of sowing and reaping. "Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Galatians 6:7). Sow good, reap good. Sow evil, reap evil. Sow offense or woe, reap offense or woe. Woe will come naturally because of what is sown, and it will come unless the harvest is somehow prevented. We believe that repentance and receiving forgiveness is a way that such a harvest can be avoided, mitigated or ameliorated.

In regard to forgiving others, Jesus said, if a brother sins against us, but then repents — forgive him — even if he sins seven times in a day and repents seven times (Luke 17:3-4).

About the role of the offender, Jesus said this: "Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:23-34).

Jesus also spoke about forgiving in Mark 11:25-26, immediately after talking about mountain-moving faith and receiving the answer to our prayers: "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive you your trespasses."

We don't have to wait for the offender to come and repent or apologize to us before we forgive. In Mark 11:25, Jesus does not even bring up their repentance. He simply tells us to forgive. The other person may never apologize to us — shall we then carry forever the burden of what they did to us, because they refuse to repent?

No, forgive anyway, and be set free from the hurt they caused, be healed from the wound, and let God deal with them. Then our faith and our prayers will be unhindered. But if we do not forgive, we will not be walking in the experience of the forgiveness our Father extends to us.

Our job is not to call down woes on people, but to forgive them — for our own sake as well as theirs. We pray for them that God, in His goodness, would lead them into true repentance so that they might experience the fullness of His blessing.

See also :

• Faith Requires Forgiveness
• Faith and Forgiveness
• Don't Let the devil Outsmart You

A Monk’s Tale of Forgiveness

Two monks set out on a long and perilous journey to a holy site. Wanting to arrive pure in spirit, they vowed not to speak or enjoy any feminine company. As they came to a large muddy hole in the road, there stood a lovely young woman dressed in finery. She was hesitant to cross for fear of ruining her clothes.

One of the monks, recognizing her concern, picked her up and gently carried her across. Then the monks continued their journey. The next day, when they arrived at the shrine, the other monk scolded his friend for breaking his vows of silence and self-control.

“What?” said the first monk, “I released the burden of that young lady immediately after we crossed over yesterday. But why are you still carrying her?”

In forgiveness, we release all the burden of care of those things which have wounded or offended us.

Don’t Let the devil Outsmart You

For if indeed I have forgiven anything, I have forgiven that one for your sakes in the presence of Christ, lest satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices. (2 Corinthians 2:10-11 New King James Version)

Or check out how these other translations have it. Notice that the issue under consideration in these verses is forgiveness.

And when I forgive this man (for whatever is to be forgiven), I do so with Christ’s authority for your benefit, so that satan will not outsmart us. For we are very familiar with his evil schemes. (New Living Translation)

In order that satan might not outwit us. (New International Version)

We don’t want satan to win any victory here, and well we know his methods! (J. B. Phillips)

After all, we don’t want to unwittingly give satan an opening for yet more mischief — we’re not oblivious to his sly ways! (The Message)

So that satan would not win anything from us. (New Century Version)

To keep satan from getting the better of us. We all know what goes on in his mind. (Contemporary English Version)

That we may not be over-reached by the adversary. (Young’s Literal Translation)

Has the devil taken advantage of you? Outsmarted you? Outwitted you? Won a victory over you? Received an opening to bring more trouble into your life? Won anything over you? Over-reached you? If there is anybody in your life that you are not willing to forgive, then the devil has done all these things to you.

Failure to forgive does us no good. What is worse, when we refuse to forgive, we open ourselves up to great harm — the devil has our number. But it does not have to be that way. Paul says that we have the devil’s number. We know his ways, his thoughts, his intentions. We know what’s going on in his mind. We can turn the tables on him and do something he is not prepared to for us to do. We can learn how to forgive in the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ. That takes the wind right out of the devil's sails.

Don’t let the devil outsmart you. Outsmart him instead. Get the victory over him. Get the better of him. Outwit him and shut the door to any further mischief from him. It's very simple: If you have anything against anyone — forgive!

How to Forgive By Faith

If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, “Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,” and it would obey you. (Luke 17:6)

Wait a minute — did I get the right verse for today’s topic? What do mustard seeds and mulberry trees have to do with learning how to forgive? Well, Jesus was talking about offenses and how to deal with them:

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him: and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, “I repent,” you shall forgive him. (Luke17:3-4)

Now, people don’t generally mind rebuking a brother. In fact, it comes quite naturally (at least in our fallen human nature). But when Jesus said to rebuke, it wasn’t a license to act mean and nasty, or to be self-satisfied (which often seems to be what we take “rebuke” to mean). When someone offends us, we want to “tell them off.”

That’s not what Jesus was talking about. Yes, there are times when we must deal seriously with a matter, and we should never back down from that. But we must always be careful to do it in love, seeking the good of the other person involved.

We don’t mind repentance, as long as it is somebody else who is doing it. If someone offends us, and then comes back and apologizes — well, we can often just go ahead and let it go, and it makes us feel, you know, sort of magnanimous. (We have a nasty habit of making everything about us, don’t we? It’s the fallen nature again.)

But seven times in one day? That’s pushing it. I mean, how much of this treatment are we supposed to take? Plus, its one thing when they offend us, and then they repent. What about when they don’t repent? Are we still supposed to forgive?

Yes.

In another place, Jesus said, “Whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses” (Mark 11:25). No repentance mentioned here, not even a hint. Just forgive.

Okay, that really tests our limits now, doesn’t it? But we’re not in bad company, because it tested the disciples as well. When Jesus told them to forgive the brother seven times, the disciples suddenly became aware of a great inadequacy in themselves, particularly in their faith.

The apostles — that’s what Luke calls them at this point — said to Jesus, “Increase our faith” (Luke 17:5). Yeah, if they were going to have to offer this kind of forgiveness, they were really going to need to reckon with their faith.

You see, like everything else in the Christian life, forgiveness is a matter of faith. For when we forgive, we are giving up something. Will God “make up the difference” for us? It takes faith to trust Him to do that.

So Jesus began talking about mustard seeds and mulberry trees: “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you” (Luke 17:6).

Faith is like a mustard seed, and like a mustard seed, it must be planted to do any good. The size of the seed is not important. What you do with it is. But how do you plant the faith “seed?”

Jesus tells us: “Say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,” and it will obey you.”

Ah, yes. You plant your faith “seed” by what you say. It is the same way with forgiveness. Forgiveness requires faith, and faith is a seed that you plant by what you say.

So the way you forgive is to say, by faith, “I forgive.” You may not feel like you have forgiven. You may even feel anger rising up again because of the offense. But you must cease from being moved by your feelings and stand with your faith: “I forgive.” As often as the offense comes to mind, and as often as feelings of anger rise up, reassert your faith: “I forgive.”

As you take your stand in faith and forgive, you will eventually find that the offense has been uprooted from your life. It is no longer chained to you — you have released it by faith. It is no longer a stumbling block for you — you have removed it by faith. It has been cast into the sea, by faith. Now you are free to move forward in your life.

Faith Requires Forgiveness

And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that you Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (Mark 11:25)

Notice the word “and” in this verse. It is related to what has gone on before. In this case, it connects to the powerful things Jesus said about mountain-moving faith. But what does forgiveness have to do with faith? Quite a lot, actually.

Remember when Jesus talked about faith as a mustard seed, in Luke 17? The disciples had just asked Him to increase their faith. But what had provoked this sudden desire for more faith? It was what Jesus had just spoken to them about forgiveness.

Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, “I repent,” you shall forgive him. (Luke 17:3-4).

The truth about forgiveness is that it is an act of faith. The disciples immediately recognized that this kind of forgiveness would require quite a bit of faith.

You see, when people are offended, they are significantly slowed down, or even stopped from moving forward. The Greek word for “offense” is skandalon, and refers to that which is a snare or a stumbling-block. When you are caught in a snare or trip over a stumbling-block, you have immediately ceased to move forward. You are no longer making progress. The question is, How long are you willing to remain in that hindered state? The choice is yours.

The answer is to forgive, and that takes faith, faith to believe that God is going to take care of the situation and restore whatever you have lost by the offense. This faith-filled forgiveness allows you to get up, get out and move forward once again. That snare is no longer a snare, the stumbling-block is no longer a stumbling-block. They have been removed, like mountains, from before you.

But there is also another aspect of forgiveness which is more to the point: Faith works through love, and it is the nature of love to forgive. When we are unwilling to forgive, we are actually unwilling to love, and unwilling to extend to others that which God has so freely extended to us.

Forgiveness is an opportunity to connect to the magnificent heart of the Father and clear away things that keep us from moving forward in faith. We can forgive, because He forgives, but failure to forgive becomes a major hindrance to our faith.

Faith requires forgiveness, and forgiveness requires faith. Do not let offenses, snares and stumbling-blocks keep you from moving forward in your faith. Instead, let your faith help you forgive. When you encounter the mountain of offenses, cast them into the sea with these words: “I forgive.” Do this as often as the need arises. Then begin again to move forward into the wonderful destiny God has prepared for you.