Loving your neighbor is not difficult when your neighbor is your friend and thinks like you and does nice things for you. Loving that neighbor is easy. As a matter of fact, loving the neighbor who is a friend is a joy, it is a “get to” not a “got to.”
That being said, loving the other neighbor, the one who has wronged you, the one who has lied about you, the one who has stolen from you, hurt your family, wounded your child or otherwise done you wrong, loving that neighbor is nearly impossible. Without Christ, it would be wholly impossible and totally understandable. The world understands when you hate those who persecute you and retaliate against those who hurt your family and wound your child.
BUT GOD . . . has another way, a more excellent way. Instead of continuing on the path of anger, bitterness and unforgiveness, my Savior, the one I call Lord, asks me to respond differently. He asks me to do the impossible and forgive. He commands me to forgive. I want to resist. I want to shout about the injustices that I have suffered, that my loved ones have suffered.
As I lift my head to shout, my eyes fall upon a cross. Blood is pooled at the foot of that cross. No longer does my Savior hang there, for He has risen, but I see the evidence of His suffering and I am reminded of the injustices that He suffered for me, and I know that all the wrongs against me have been paid for by that spilled blood. The payment has been rendered for the hurts, the slights, the attacks, the lies, the abuse . . . and I bow my head. “Forgive me, Father.”
“I will forgive you as you forgive those who wrong you.”
In that moment, knowing I need God’s forgiveness more than my own vindication, I release what I have been holding against those who have wronged me. I cannot survive without the forgiveness and love of my God. It is His great love that drew me, that healed me, that delivered me. I must do this thing He commands. There is no other way. “Help me Father to forgive.”
“And so I shall, my child.”
In the upcoming posts, we will consider this issue of forgiveness, bitterness and anger, and the biblical response to it in the life of the believer.
