Forgive

 DEVOTION

THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW

FORGIVE

Matt 6:9-13

9 "This, then, is how you should pray: "'Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, 10 your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 11 Give us today our daily bread. 12 Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. 13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.'

NIV

It is time to deal with asking God to forgive us, however, with condition that we forgive those who offended us. Jesus is going to expand this principle following this example as to how we are to pray. It is interesting that the word choice of debts and debtors is used rather than transgressions or sins. In the gospel according to Luke when he recorded the Lord’s Prayer, He uses the word that means sin and it is translated as sin. We would have to believe this debt is seen as a sin. Certainly, we cannot be in debt to God in the sense that the Greek word translated as debt means owing someone money due to a legal contract, which we are obligated to pay. If we used this word in that manner, then we would have to forgive anyone who owes us money. If that were the case, all believers could not enter into any financial agreement with another believer, because we could not have one believer owing another because the lending believer would have to forgive the debt of the borrowing believer and therefore no debts would ever occur. Therefore, we must see this as asking God to forgive our sins, in the same manner as we forgive anyone who sins against us. We will get to that in more detail as Jesus does. However, for now, we must understand that we must forgive others if we are going to want God to forgive us. Forgiving does not mean forgetting, but it does mean that we will not hold a grudge or retaliate or speak irreverently about that person we have forgiven. Yes, it would be beneficial to have a conversation with that person who offended us or sinned against us. But that would have to be done in love. We cannot judge their actions, nor can we condemn their actions, all that is only up to God. All we can do is forgive them, which means we never, ever, not ever, not even once remind them of their offense. We know that love does not keep a record of wrongs and here is where that rubber hits the road. We know that we have sinned against God, and we know we will sin again in some way, for we have not yet attained perfection. That perfection will be attained the day we leave this body and step into the presence of our Lord. But, in the meantime, we need to ask God to forgive us daily when we sin, and we are assured that he will forgive us. However, he will forgive us just as we forgive others. So, if we do keep a record of their wrongs against us, God will keep a record of our wrongs against him and where does that leave us. no, we have to forgive, we have no other choice if we are followers of Jesus.