Learning to Forgive

Matthew 5:21-26 (ESV)
"You have heard that it was said to those of old, 'You shall not murder; and whoever murders will be liable to judgment.' [22] But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother will be liable to judgment; whoever insults his brother will be liable to the council; and whoever says, 'You fool!' will be liable to the hell of fire. [23] So if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, [24] leave your gift there before the altar and go. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. [25] Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are going with him to court, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. [26] Truly, I say to you, you will never get out until you have paid the last penny.

I suppose most would be tempted to write this off as hyperbole. Perhaps that is our biggest temptation, to not take God’s law seriously. “God would send me to Hell for calling someone a fool? Really? He can’t be serious about that. I’m not allowed to be angry with my brother? Who doesn’t get angry?” Well that is just it. Perhaps it is just a few of us guilty of actually murdering someone in this world. But we have all been angry. And in that anger we have all hurled insults at our own loved ones that make “you fool” look rather tame. No doubt our brothers have something against us. Notice it isn’t if we have something against our brothers. That is an easy, or at least an easier thing to deal with. We who know the forgiveness of Christ, have an easy way of dealing with the anger and resentment we harbor towards someone else. We forgive them. Well it is easier to write that than it actually is in practice. I know people who say they want to forgive, but the hatred seems to stay. Forgiving isn’t magic. Saying I forgive you doesn’t always erase the hard emotions from the lives of our old Adam. Romans 7, “the good that I would I do not….” But it is the Old Adam in us then that harbors the grudges. Drown him in daily repentance.
But when our brothers have something against us, that is where it gets to be hard. There is not much more that a person can do but say, “I’m sorry.” Perhaps you can show your sorrow in the matter by offering to repay some of it if you cheated a brother. But the hard reality of life, is most people would rather hold a grudge than accept and apology. Some people act as if they need it to live. And then they think going to court is going to satiate their anger. Good luck with that. More often than not that just inflames anger. It is much better if at all possible to settle things with your accuser before you go to court. But the only thing that is ever going to satiate anger is to forgive. Life in this world really is to short to do anything else, but forgive. Thankfully, we have been forgiven by the judge, so we have a better life waiting. And this life? Well it is hard to take this life quite so seriously as all that when we realize what a better life waits for us. And learning to forgive, you learn to live.