There is a lot the Bible tells Christians to do. Go to church, read the Bible, get baptized, pray, tithe, share the gospel, and serve others… The list keeps going.
Every one of those is something we do outwardly. Something we can be measured on. We can check off a list at the end of the week.
But the number one thing every Christian must learn to do is not on that list. It happens in a place nobody else can see but God and it happens in the private ground of our own hearts.
It is forgiveness.
Ephesians 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
Paul commands us to forgive, and he anchors the command in the greatest thing that has ever happened to us: we are forgiven.
We Are Forgiven
If you are saved, you are forgiven. Every sin we ever committed. Every rebellion, every failure and every ugly thought or hidden compromise. They are all nailed to the cross, blotted out, and cast into the depths of the sea. God literally forgets them on purpose when He forgives us.
Psalm 103:12 “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us.”
We were forgiven for Christ’s sake.
But that forgiveness comes with a request. And the request is simple:
Forgive others the way you have been forgiven.
The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant
Jesus told a story about this in Matthew 18. A servant owed the king ten thousand talents. That is more money than a normal man could earn in ten lifetimes. It was a debt that could never be repaid.
The king was going to sell the servant, his wife, and his children to recover what he could. The servant fell down and begged for patience. And the king did something the servant never asked for.
Matthew 18:27 “Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt.”
The whole debt was gone. The king did not restructure the debt, he just forgave it.
The servant walked out a free man. And the first thing he did was find another servant who owed him a hundred pence, a tiny fraction of what he had just been forgiven.
Matthew 18:28 “And the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.”
The forgiven servant became the unforgiving man in the space of one afternoon. He would not do for someone else what had just been done for him.
When the king found out, he was not gentle.
Matthew 18:32-33 “O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”
Why We Are Commanded To Forgive
Because we have been forgiven. That is the whole reason. Paul says it plainly in Ephesians and Colossians says it the same way.
Colossians 3:13 “Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
The Christian who refuses to forgive is a servant who took the king’s mercy and never passed it on. He got the ten thousand talents lifted off his shoulders and then went out and choked somebody over a hundred pence.
That is why forgiveness is not optional. It is the natural response of a heart that understands what it has been given.
Heaven Vs. Hell
Here is the simplest way to say it:
- Everyone in heaven is forgiven.
- Hell is the place no one is forgiven.
That is the whole difference!
And if that is the whole difference between heaven and hell, then the ability to forgive others should not be a struggle for a Christian. It should be the most natural thing we do. We of all people know what forgiveness cost: Christ shed blood.
The Way Forward
The way forward is a decision, made in the presence of the Lord, to release the debt someone owes us because a bigger debt has been released for us.
And when it comes back to mind, and it will, hand it to Him again and again.
Ephesians 4:32 “And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
We are forgiven! That is the greatest news any of us have ever heard. And it comes with one request: Forgive others.
Jesus reminded us that His forgiveness comes with the expectation that we forgive others and He gave us a harsh warning:
Matthew 6:14-15 “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
The number one thing every Christian must learn to do is the one nobody sees us do. The one that happens in the private ground of our hearts between us and the Lord.
Forgive because we have been forgiven.
