Working on the "Forget"

Be gentle and ready to forgive; never hold grudges.  Remember the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:13 TLB

I forgive you.  Those three words are often difficult to utter, and they sometimes seem downright impossible to abide by.  Consider the times you've been wronged in recent months.  Perhaps someone lied to you.  Maybe someone said unkind things about you.  What feelings do you have when you think back to those circumstances? Anger? Frustration? Disappointment?  Notice how easy it is to recapture some of the bitterness?

When someone causes you pain, it's not always easy to forgive.  It's so much easier to hold a grudge, to silently keep punishing the person for his or her wrongs.  In a twisted sort of way, holding back forgiveness seems to even the score.

The Bible, however, teaches a different message about forgiveness.  In no uncertain terms, it says to "forgive others just as Christ forgave you."

When Paul wrote members of the Colossian church, he was responding to false teachings that had infected their beliefs.  Much of Paul's letter was written to refute this heresy and to help the Colossian church members find their way back to living according to Jesus' teachings.  It's significant for two reasons that Paul talked about forgiveness in his letter.  First, Paul knew that the confusion brought about by heretical teachings and the subsequent rediscovery of the truth could lead to bitterness and hurt among the members. Second, the message of forgiveness would point them back to the focal point of true faith: that Jesus died to forgive their sins.

This focal point of faith is the greatest motivation for deciding to forgive others.  Since Jesus paid the ultimate price for your forgiveness, what right do you have to deny forgiveness to those who wrong you?  Jesus said it even more directly: "If you forgive others, God will forgive you."