Err On the Side of Forgiveness.

Mat 18:23  Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 

Mat 18:24  And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 

Mat 18:25  But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 

Mat 18:26  The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

Mat 18:27  Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. 

Mat 18:28  But 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. 

Mat 18:29  And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 

Mat 18:30  And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 

Mat 18:31  So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 

Mat 18:32  Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: 

Mat 18:33  Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? 

Mat 18:34  And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 

Mat 18:35  So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. 

The Kingdom of Heaven- Forgiveness.

We repent.

We recognize our wrong doing. We comprehend that the wrong doing hurts God, and causes a separation between us and Him. We don't want that separation between us so we ask to be forgiven for that wrong. We want the One who has the power to give us forgiveness to forgive us and take the separation away. God forgives. We are no longer separated by that sin, that wrong against God.

The parable above talks about a man forgiving his servant a great debt owed to him.

Then the forgiven man seeks out another man and chooses not to forgive him for a wrong done to him.

The man who forgave his servant finds out that the one he forgave is not forgiving in return and this makes him angry and punishes the unforgiving man.

God forgive us our great debt.

We MUST forgive others their debts.

The incredible kindness that cannot be repaid that was done to us, we need to do for others to whatever degree we can.

This goes hand in hand with the following-

Mat 6:12  And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. 

We are forgiven as we forgive.

This isn't an easy thing to learn, to realize, to make a part of our lives. So many people hurt other people all the time- intentionally and unintentionally. People just like us hurting God through our sins. We don't want to hurt God through our sins, yet we find it so incredibly hard to keep from sinning. Those who hurt us by their wrongdoings most likely a lot of the time are in the same position of not wanting to hurt us, but their actions that hurt us are too compelling to stop. Do we forgive once? Yes. Do we forgive twice? Yes. Do we forgive seven times? Yes. Do we forgive endlessly? Yes.  Yes, we do. We forgive and we keep forgiving because we know we too need endless forgiveness.

Is endless forgiveness an excuse to willfully sin, to embrace the desire to sin without reservation, to take the sin and make it a part of our lives until it no longer is even recognized as sin? No. Forgiveness comes from repentance, a desire to no longer sin. If others aren't seeking forgiveness for their sins against us- we can still forgive them. We can't make others recognize their sins against us as being such. We can't stop others from doing things that hurt us. We can't control anyone else and we mustn't think we should be able to. God does not force us to obey Him, not ever.

We forgive because we need forgiveness and not from the one we are forgiving, but from the One who can forgive us perfectly. His compassion must be answered by our compassion. The forgiveness He gives us shows us how to forgive. He doesn't make us earn forgiveness. He knows how fallible we are and hasn't put a limit on the number of times He'll forgive us. Each case is individually based, He knows the heart. While we can't know the heart of another, only what they reveal to us in word and actions, we must err on the side of forgiveness, always.

By His Grace.