Forgive As We Have Been Forgiven

“We must develop and maintain the capacity to forgive. He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love.”

- Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”

- The Apostle Paul, Ephesians 4:32

Can you even imagine what our lives would be like if God did not have the ability or desire to forgive? If God harbored the debt we owe Him, if He held on to every time we dishonored Him, if He remembered every sin we committed against Him… our lives would be literally and figuratively “HELL.”

BUT (it can be such a beautiful word), because of His great love for us, God, through Jesus Christ, offered forgiveness to us. He freed us from a debt we could never repay, He let go of every time we dishonored Him, and He forgot every sin we ever committed against Him.

David writes in Psalm 86:5, “You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.”

In Psalm 103:12, again David writes, “As far as the east if from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.”

And the writer of Hebrews writes in Hebrews 8:12, “For I [God] will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”

What an amazing gift we have received! What an amazing God we serve!

Though we were undeserving, God, because of His amazing grace and unending love, chose to send His Only Son to pay the sacrifice for our sins that we might be forgiven and have a relationship with Him.

What does He ask for in return? As He has forgiven us, may we show that same forgiveness to others. As the Apostle Paul writes in Colossians 3:13,

“Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you have a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”

As Martin Luther King, Jr. put it so well, “He who is devoid of the power to forgive is devoid of the power of love.”

May we love others the way God loved us, being kind and compassionate, offering forgiveness as God forgave us.

Pastor Ken

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