07/23/2021
It is far easier to love God who always loves us so perfectly, and who is good to us in every way, than it is to love those around us. Are we able to love one another as He loves us? Can we accept the world’s fallen creatures that we call brothers and sisters, and love them enough that we will get into the cesspool of life, hold them to us, and honestly care about their wellbeing and salvation? Can we look past their imperfection, and ignore the stench of sin on them as we not only forgive them from afar, but embrace them, and lead them step by step into a righteous relationship with God? Can we love each other as Jesus is loves us?
““This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”
John 15:12 ESV
Loving someone who we find only moderately distasteful, or who is at least trying to be good, righteous, and is seeking a more perfect faith, is hard enough, but how can we ever love those around us that have no obvious desire to treat others in any way other than to harm them, or who are seemingly living their lives happily in sin? How can we love those who are consuming the very sins that tempt us, or with which we are desperately struggling every day?
“but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 5:8 ESV
Before we forgive we must first love. There is no value in begrudgingly forgiving someone, forgiving reluctantly, or provisionally forgiving someone as we wait to see if they will hurt us again. Forgiveness is either complete… or it is nonexistent. God teaches us this lesson when he tells us that after he has forgiven us, He choses to forget our sin, and to separate our transgressions completely from us.
“For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.””
Hebrews 8:12 ESV
“For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”
Psalm 103:11-12 ESVm
A few years ago I ran headlong into this mystery, and the dilemma it poses for us. I found myself struggling to forgive someone who had done me harm. I tried mightily to forgive them, and to be at peace with how they had treated me, but try as I might I just couldn’t forget, or defeat that feeling of bitterness within me. Then I realized that it wasn’t the forgiveness I was wrestling with at all… it was the love. I would never be able to truly forgive them, and be at peace in myself, until I first learned what it meant to love them with the love of Christ. I wasn’t able to metaphorically die for this person while I still perceived him to be a sinner. When at last I learned to love without expecting love, or perfection, in return, I was able to forgive… and was able to choose to forget, and love them as I should.
“No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Romans 8:37-39 ESV
So, we learn to forgive by learning to love, and we learn to love by imitating Jesus, and God. We read God’s Word, and then pray that it becomes what drives our own lives. We ask for the Holy Spirit to give us an understanding of God’s love, and how He is able to love us, and call to us, while we are yet sinners. Then we chose to forgive, and to forget in our own lives. This is the mystery to us… how our forgiveness feeds on love, and our love on forgiveness, yet neither is consumed, nor are they diminished… only increased.
“And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:30-32 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for loving us, forgiving us, and choosing to forget our transgressions. Thank you for calling us, not because we are perfect, but while we are yet sinners. Help us to be like you Lord, by loving those around us who often hate us, wish to do us harm, or are unsavory and distasteful to us in some fashion. Teach us to love that we might forgive, and to forget so that we might love all the more. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who leads us into righteousness for your name’s sake. Praised be your name for loving us as you do. Merciful are you in forgiveness, and mighty is your grace that forgets the sinners we once were. Wash us in the blood of Jesus, and purify us in the New Covenant of His blood. Help us to reflect the glory of your love, and the image of Jesus that is His love will shine forth for all the world to see. Seat us in your presence forevermore, and surround us with those we once found unlikely, but who now share in your image with us… brought here by love.
Rich Forbes