Forgiveness & Wisdom
/How could you do that again?!
My friend asked this question this morning and, I have to say I, myself, have asked variations of this very question so many times:
"What do you do when time and time again you plan to do something to help someone and every single time it comes out that they are stabbing you behind you back??"
We get more annoyed because we think that Christ said "turn the other cheek" and "forgive them 70 times seven times", but do we remember context? What did Jesus do?
Forgiveness
and
Wisdom,
not
'Forgiveness
or
Wisdom'
(1) Reconciliation only after Repentance
Full reconciliation before our attackers realize their wrong actions, and
(decide to change as a result of being sorry), is
quite dangerous.
, tells us:
"Do not give dogs what is holy, and do not throw your pearls before pigs, lest they trample them underfoot and turn to attack you"
Jesus died that we might be forgiven and reconciled to God,
but if you don't know you need forgiveness, you do not repent and, therefore, cannot receive reconcilation. Repentance makes room for reconciliation (
).
(2) Suffer only as you're called to: Don't enable sin
When we reconcile before their repentance,
we make our attackers stumble,
because we
their sin. We are not acting in love.
Jesus didn't suffer and die "just because". NO! He suffered
as He was called to
by God,
His and our Father. (See 1 Peter 2:18,19,23; 1 Peter 3:17, in
.)
(3) Perspective: You don't know what you don't know
If you're still hurting from a recent attack, this is irritating, but: No matter how close you are to someone, or how obvious the wrong action should be, there's always some perspective you can't possibly see, simply because
you're not that person.
We saw Matthew 7:6 above, but the first part,
, cannot be ignored:
We don't know enough to judge.
That plank in each of our eyes refers to our limited human insights. Even conjoined twin don't know enough to judge accurately.
theresnotimeforpants.blogspot.ca
|
You are only called to forgive and pray
Like Jesus Christ, you're called to forgive them.
We are not called to:
force repentance: "You have to admit you're wrong!", nor to
force reconciliation and put yourself in danger.
You're just called to forgive. Forgiveness restore God's Shalom peace in you as you step back and let Him in.
Forgiveness releases you:
from the anger and hurt, as we realize we all sin and fall short of righteousness;
from sin of unforgiveness to prevents your own reconciliation with God in that area; and
to love that person as they are, being able to pray genuinely (not vengefully) for them.
Forgiveness is not...
People give Mark Driscoll a hard time, and I don't always think he delivers his message in the spirit of God's Love, but when he's right, he's very right. Here's the blog and his video message on "
".
[
Remember:
As with
Matthew 7
above, whether reading this or listening to a favourite preacher, try to
always
read the Word in context (the entire chapter) and
always
check the Word
yourself.
]
