Sharpness - Mountain Movers

Sometimes the Word of God is gentle, loving, kind, and hopeful. Other times it has a sharpness that startles us. When Paul writes to the people of Galatia, his words aren’t exactly squishy:

“Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.If you sow to your own flesh, you will reap corruption from the flesh, but if you sow to the Spirit, you will reap eternal life from the Spirit.” (Galatians 6:7-8 NRSVUE)

Kind of like “what goes around comes around,” but with more consequences.

What we sow (plant/give/speak) will be what we reap (harvest/take/hear). If we sow love, peace, joy, kindness, gentleness, hope, etc. then we will reap these things. If we don’t, we won’t. Or, to take it a step further, if we sow strife, bitterness, anger, etc. we will be on the receiving end of plenty of those.

Jesus was pretty straight-forward on the issue of unforgiveness.

There’s this line from the Lord’s Prayer:

“Forgive us for the ways we have wronged you, just as we also forgive those who have wronged us.” (Matthew 6:12 CEV)

“Just as” implies an equality in action. We ask for God to forgive us “JUST AS” we forgive. We don’t expect God to forgive us even if we haven’t forgiven others. Or, to put it another way:

“‘And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].” (Matthew 6:12 AMP)

Letting go of both the wrong and the resentment isn’t the easiest thing to do emotionally, but it’s the key to fully releasing someone from the debt they owe you. After all, “If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15 NLT)

C.S. Lewis said this about forgiveness:

“No part of His teaching is clearer, and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins provided they are not too frightful, or provided there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.” – from The Weight of Glory

This verse from Hebrews 12 in the Passion Translation caught me the other day:

“We must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin that we so easily fall into.” (Hebrews 12:1 TPT)

“Let go of every wound that has pierced us?” Let go of EVERY wound? Let go of every affront, slight, injury, slam, or insult? To “let go” implies an action on our part. Forgiveness – letting go of those wounds – can’t be passive. We have to intentionally say, “I forgive you.” Even if the person’s sins are frightful, mean, and repeated. We have to purpose to intentionally forgive so we can let go of our wounds.

Again to C.S. Lewis has wisdom on this topic:

“[F]orgiving does not mean excusing. Many people seem to think it does. They think that if you ask them to forgive someone who has cheated or bullied them you are trying to make out that there was really no cheating or no bullying. But if that were so, there would be nothing to forgive. They keep on replying, “But I tell you the man broke a most solemn promise.” Exactly: that is precisely what you have to forgive. (This doesn’t mean that you must necessarily believe his next promise. It does mean that you must make every effort to kill every taste of resentment in your own heart—every wish to humiliate or hurt him or to pay him out.) The difference between this situation and the one in which you are asking God’s forgiveness is this. In our own case we accept excuses too easily; in other people’s we do not accept them easily enough.” – from The Weight of Glory

Forgiving is not the same as forgetting. We aren’t expected to “believe his next promise,” but we are expected to “make every effort to kill the taste of resentment in our heart – every wish to humiliate him or hurt him or pay him out.” EVERY wish for revenge must be eliminated.

Jesus’s words are not necessarily easy to live out. But if Jesus can endure the agony of the cross and conquer its humiliation because “his heart was focused on the joy of knowing we would be his,” what joy will be ours if we do live out his call to forgive as we are forgiven?

Jesus,

Help us forgive ourselves and others as you have forgiven us. Help us let go of wounds that have pierced us and embrace your Abundant Life. We ask in your name, Amen.

“As for us, we have all of these great witnesses who encircle us like clouds. So we must let go of every wound that has pierced us and the sin we so easily fall into. Then we will be able to run life’s marathon race with passion and determination, for the path has been already marked out before us. We look away from the natural realm and we focus our attention and expectation onto Jesus who birthed faith within us and who leads us forward into faith’s perfection. His example is this: Because his heart was focused on the joy of knowing that you would be his, he endured the agony of the cross and conquered its humiliation, and now sits exalted at the right hand of the throne of God!” (Hebrews 12:1-2 TPT)

“I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” – Jesus (John 10:10 NKJV)