Tuesday, May 17, 2011

What Will You Do ?

Ecclesiastes 7:20 (New Living Translation)

20 Not a single person on earth is always good and never sins.

With this in mind, how do you handle when someone you know has sinned against you or you are upset by their sin? Jesus calls us to forgive one another for everything. To Him, all sin is just that sin. There are no levels of sin, except for the unpardonable sin against the Holy Spirit as described in Matthew 12:31-32, which is not forgivable by God.

So, If 99% of sins are forgivable by God, and sins are not labeled with severity levels by God, and we all sin, should we not as Christians forgive each other no matter what the sin was, put it behind us and move on with lives.

Forgiveness is typically defined as the process of concluding resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, difference or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution. ( Wikipedia )

Should we not be able to treat each other as we always have no matter what based on the definition of forgiveness. If someone makes us angry because they sinned against, should not our forgiveness relieve that anger and allow us to once again interact with that person? I say yes and have been down this road. When you truly have forgiven someone with Gods help, it is truly possible to carry on as you once did with someone, I know. I am not saying you won't have reservations or doubts depending on what they have done, but forgiveness does not give any of us the power to judge or label anyone based on a past offense, especially if they have truly repented for what they have done.

1 comment:

Sheila Raddatz said...

It's much easier to forgive than forget and forgiving isn't easy.
The Christian thing is to forgive....but what about the forget part? Is that "evil" trying to sneak back in?