The measure of true forgiveness
The prayer which Christ taught His disciples falls into two parts. The first is Godward; the second is manward. The former has in view the glory of God; the latter deals with the needs of men.
There are three Godward requests: “Hallowed be Thy name…Thy kingdom come…Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.” There are also three manward requests: “Give us this day our daily bread…forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us…lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” These latter three touch man’s greatest needs—daily bread, daily forgiveness, and daily preservation.
Notice that no conditions are attached to the Godward requests, and none to the first and the last of the manward requests. On the other hand there is a definite condition associated with the central manward request: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive them that trespass against us.” The Lord, in the most explicit language, emphasizes this: “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive you.”
It is clear, therefore, that forgiving others is of vital importance—in fact of far greater importance than is generally recognized.
If we refuse to give of our bread to the hungry, we know of no scripture that would lead us to expect that God will treat us in the same way and withhold His supply of our bread on the morrow; but we possess definite and repeated verses to assure us that if we refuse to forgive our fellowmen, with absolute certainty, God will repay us in kind, and will refuse to forgive our trespasses. This is an intensely solemn matter; have we thought of it sufficiently? Have we laid it to heart?
How much unforgiven sin may there not be among the people of God just because they fail, or refuse, to forgive one another! This demands serious consideration. Let us not think of it lightly. Every one of us needs to be forgiven, we desire to be forgiven, we ask to be forgiven. But do we forgive? Vain it is for us to ask to be forgiven if God knows we manifest an unforgiving spirit toward any one. We may have absolute certainty that God will not forgive us if we fail to forgive others. He has said so in the most unequivocable language. Is there no call from God for us to examine ourselves regarding this solemn matter?
The Necessity of Forgiveness
Let us think of the necessity for forgiveness. This will always present itself and that in many directions. We are, everyone of us, beset by infirmity. It is to be feared we often give offense because of this. We differ so much in disposition, characteristics and outlook; we have so little attained to the unity of the faith that it is difficult for us to see eye to eye. There is therefore tremendous necessity and opportunity for us to consider one another, and to bear with one another. How often offense is given or taken when such a thing is never intended! How often Satan takes advantage of our weaknesses to cause bitterness and lack of concord. How important to hold ourselves well in hand in the fear of Christ lest we sin against Christ and the members of His Body. If the spirit of forgiveness possesses us—and this is the spirit of Christ—we shall not wait long to have opportunity for exercising it, seeing we are such weak and failing creatures. The necessity for the exercise of forgiveness will always be with us so long as we are in the body.
The Urgency of Forgiveness
Here delay is always dangerous and often deadly. What trifling things, because of delay, become roots of bitterness, springing up and defiling the many. This surely does not require to be emphasized: its fruits, alas, are all too manifest from time to time.
There is, at this point, a very pertinent scripture in Ephesians 4:26, “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” This again leads on to verse 32: “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.” To be angry is not necessarily an evil thing, although it often is evil with men. God is angry. Our Lord, in the days of His flesh, looked round upon men in anger because of the hardening of their hearts. But with men, even righteous anger may develop into sin. “Be ye angry and sin not.”
How may we sin in such a case? By allowing the sun to go down upon our wrath! By not having the cause of our wrath, “our provocation,” removed the very day on which it arises. To let the sun go down nursing our wrath often leads to permanent and sinful results.
Ephesians 4:26 is a quotation from Psalm 4:4. There it reads: “Stand in awe, and sin not: commune with your own heart upon your bed, and be still.” The anger contemplated here is clearly an anger that has “awe” for its basis. It is not fleshly and hasty; it is a holy, solemn anger approximating to awe. Moreover it is so awesome, its possibilities for evil are so terrible, that it should be impossible to go to sleep until it has been removed from the soul’s horizon. “Commune with your own heart upon your bed”—see that everything has been removed between your soul and God, between your soul and man. Be still—still in soul—let there be no conflict, no controversy unsettled; see that everything has been removed Godward and manward. We plead for an earnest consideration of these words and an earnest application of the truth they convey. Only in this way can we be saved from sin.
The Frequency of Forgiveness
Peter had this point out with the Lord and cleared the matter up for us. “Lord,” said he, “how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” The Lord responded: “I say not unto thee, until seven times: but until seventy times seven.” What does this imply? Clearly that there is to be no end to forgiveness; that so long as the necessity continues there is to be no limit whatever. It is to be ceaseless and endless. How would we stand the test if faced with the necessity for a literal interpretation and application of this truth? Have we learned enough of God to be fashioned like Him in regard to the spirit of forgiveness? Could we stand the test of seventy times seven? Could we even stand the test of seven times, some of us? God knows!
It is to be feared that there are few matters in which Christians fail more manifestly than in this; and there are certainly few things that have such a dire result on their souls. This is a matter that shuts up the heavens against us, and effectively closes God’s ear to our supplications for forgiveness. It brings a blight on the life and a chill on the soul such as, perhaps, nothing else does. Long observation compels one to fear that this blight is widespread in our day.
How easily offense is given! How readily offense is taken! The one is almost as bad as the other. Never should we give offense. Never should we take offense. If the love that never fails filled our hearts we would be guilty of neither the one nor the other. What trifles are permitted to estrange hearts, causing bitterness and enmity, coldness and strife! It is written in Scripture: “When I became a man, I put away childish things,” but one is sometimes compelled to conclude that boys playing marbles are not more childish than some men are when they are professedly handling the sacred and solemn things of God. They huff and pet and sulk like babies. “Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath.” Instead, alas, men often take their provocation to bed with them and hug it there until it becomes such a mountain between their souls and their fellows that often it can never be removed.
This is no exaggeration: it is a naked, solemn truth, acted and reenacted again and again. And how seldom the seven times in forgiveness are reached, let alone the seventy times seven! How this must grieve the Lord’s heart. With almost His last breath, when the spikes were being driven through the quivering flesh of His hands and feet, did He not pray: “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do”? His heart could only love!
The Process of Forgiveness
If this spirit of forgiveness dominates us, if we are prepared to go all the way to the seventy times seven—to the limitless in forgiveness—then we are in a condition to deal with a case such as Matthew 18:15 refers to. “If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and him alone: if he shall hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother.” Remember he is “thy brother,” one of these “little ones” of whom the Lord speaks in the previous verse; and “it is not the will of your Father which is in heaven, that one of these little ones should perish.” “Little ones”—a designation of tenderest affection. “Thy brother”—a designation of closest relation. See then that you go in the spirit of Christ, bursting with the spirit of forgiveness. You are playing for big stakes! If you gain your brother you have gained a treasure indeed, and probably covered a multitude of sins.
On the other hand, if you go in the flesh, to demand and to humble, or just to be able to say you have acted on Matthew 18:15, it would be better if you had stayed at home. How often it is to be feared this scripture has been acted on in a carnal and cruel way. No wonder that disaster has resulted. The object must always be to gain your brother; and the problem of gaining is usually solved by the grace of forgiveness.
But if it should be found impossible to gain him, in such a case a serious situation has developed. There is a danger that the “little one,” “thy brother,” may destroy himself. Hence, in the fear of God, take with you one or two others, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established—and see that they are likeminded with you, filled with the spirit of forgiveness and earnestly desiring to gain the brother. Should he, in turn, refuse to hear them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to hear the church, let him be to you as the Gentile and the publican; assured that, if such dealings have been of God, what things you shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; and what you shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Oh, with what holy fear and trembling should this be enacted by the individual, the two or three, and the church. Has it always been so?
What follows in Matthew 18 is the parable of the king reckoning with his servants. One is found who owed ten thousand talents, and having nothing with which to pay, his lord was moved with compassion and released him, forgiving the entire debt.
Can the grace of the king’s heart rise to such a height as this? Can forgiveness be so immense, so prodigious? It can! He forgave him the debt. And although our debt to God and to righteousness towered as high as the mountains, and although we had nothing with which to pay, God in Christ forgave us all. Oh, the grace of the King! Oh, the grace of God! Can we ever forget it?
Then the sequel. This same servant soon after found a fellowservant who owed him a hundred pence, and, seizing him by the throat, he demanded payment. When he had nothing wherewith to pay, he cast him into prison until the debt should be paid. Hearing of this, the king called the cruel servant before him and said: “Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt….Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all…So shall My heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye…forgive not every one his brother.”
We are to meet the King soon; the judgment seat is being prepared. We must give our account to God. How does it stand with us? How shall we meet the King? Have we forgiven our brother, our sister? Face the problem, and, if necessary, get things right, while yet we may. Get the channels between God and our souls cleared. They have been choked, it may be for years, because we have refused to forgive. Choked channels; a shadow on the soul; a blight in the life; no forgiving of one another. Oh, how shall we meet the King? What shall we say to Him? He has forgiven us ten thousand sins; we cannot forgive our brother or sister a trifling fault. O Lord, speak the word again—“seventy times seven.”