Why We Forgive

I have been writing or editing for Today in the Word for more than 30 years, and God’s Word has transformed my life in countless ways through authoring these studies. For example, back in October 2002 I wrote a devotional about forgiveness. What I learned from that study knocked me for a loop. God’s love and grace were and are so much more than I ever realized!

At the close of His lesson on prayer, Jesus highlights forgiveness. He’d already mentioned it as part of the Lord’s Prayer (v. 12). In today’s verses, He explained more: If you forgive others, God will forgive you (v. 14). If you don’t, He won’t (v. 15). These are two sides of the same coin. This is not about salvation. It’s not saying God’s love is conditional. It’s about our responsibility to forgive as we have been forgiven (Matt. 5:7; Eph. 4:32).

Jesus also taught this principle in the parable of the unmerciful servant (Matt. 18:21–35). This was told to explain the idea of forgiving someone “seventy-seven times.” When the servant who had been forgiven a large debt refused to forgive a fellow servant who owed him only a small amount, the master reconsidered his forgiveness and punished that servant. Jesus concluded: “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

Forgiving others is a significant issue. We’ve all wronged God far worse than anyone has ever wronged us. Yet He has completely forgiven us! He has “removed our transgressions from us” as far as the east is from the west, that is, as far as is conceivably possible (Ps. 103:12). Similarly, He has hurled “all our iniquities into the depths of the sea” (Mic. 7:18–19).

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