Post by Cindy on Jan 25, 2021 12:13:04 GMT -5
Sadly, sooner or later, someone is going to harm us during our life. In worst cases, this can even happen when we are a young child. Once we are saved, how should we treat the person that harmed us? I'm talking about someone who may have raped us, beat us, abused us, murdered a love one, maybe even tried to murder us, robbed us, or other things like that. I'm speaking about someone who hurt us terribly and possibly has even gotten away with it. Maybe this happened many years ago, or maybe it happened recently. No matter what happened, or when it happened, we have to know how Jesus wants us to treat this person.
First Jesus says we must forgive them. This is not an option, it's a command. Further, He says we're to forgive them the same way He forgave us. So let's look at how He forgave us. He did so while we were still His enemy. (Romans 5:10, Col 1:21; Col 3:13) So He didn't wait for us to change how we felt about Him or how we thought about Him, He forgave us regardless of how we thought and acted at the time. When Jesus forgave us, He also poured His love into our hearts so that we could love Him and other people. that's important, because Jesus also wants us to love the person who hurt us so badly. He doesn't say it will be easy, but He doesn't make it an option either. It too is a command. (Luke 6:27-36; Luke 6:35-36; Matthew 5:43-48; Matthew 6:14–15; 1 Peter 3:9; Matthew 5:39–42; Romans 12:17–21) These verses as well as many others, also make it quite clear that Jesus is not saying that we're to say we forgive them and then hope we never see them again. Nor does He want us to just forgive them and pray for them. He expects us to show them they are forgiven and loved by our words and actions. His intention is for us to be reconciled to them if it's at all possible. If, as is likely, they are not saved, then He also wants us to be a channel to them to show them what His love looks like and lead them to salvation.
Let me quickly explain that forgiving someone isn't about how we feel. Most likely we will feel like we don't want to forgive them and may even feel hate for them, as well as anger. But that too Jesus will take care of if we will only obey His Word. He doesn't tell us to forgive and love just for the other persons benefit or His benefit, but for our own benefit! He wants to heal our wounded hearts completely. So we can obey His command by praying and asking His help to forgive them and then telling Him that we are forgiving them in obedience to Him because we love Him. Ask Him to change our hearts so we can view the person who hurt us the way He does. The next step is to find ways to show this person what God's love looks like. Maybe doing something to help them. Our hearts may not want to do this, and we may not feel like we love them, but if we obey God and keep on obeying Him about this, eventually our feelings will match our words and actions, because God will change our hearts and make them more like His.
God tells us that He will treat us the way we treat others. If we forgive, He will forgive us, if we show mercy, He will show us mercy and so on. (James 2:12–13; other scriptures have already been posted above). The problem for us is that we want mercy from God for ourselves. We want Him to love us and give us blessings. We most certainly want Him to show us mercy and grace, because we don't want to have the pay the penalty for our sins, and don't want Him to treat us the way we have treated some others we were angry at in our past. The problem is that while all that is true, we do want Him to take revenge on the person who hurt us and we want Him to shower that person with all of His Wrath. That, my friends, is our sin nature talking, and we can bet that Satan will urge us to continue to think and feel that way too. Jesus tells us to come to Him in prayer and tell Him about it when we get hurt, and when we're angry. He tells us to never let the sun go down on our anger. In other words, don't take it with us into the next day. We're to give it up to Jesus. (Ephesians 4:26–27; Ephesians 4:31–32; James 1:20; Acts 8:23) If we study the effect of anger on us, anger that we allow to continue to stay in our hearts, we find that it causes our hearts to become hard, and our love to become cold, and it turns into hate, and bitterness and causes us to become captive to sin and Satan. No, we don't lose our salvation, but we are losing rewards and blessings, and most off we're causing our Savior pain and bringing dishonor to His Name and to the Church. So it's very important to not let anger continue in our hearts, but to give it to the Lord instead, so He can heal our heart.
God heals us and changes us to be more like Him through His Word. That's why He commands us to spend time in His Word daily. He loves us, and wants us to know Him and to know His Will for us. The only way we can do that is through knowing His Word (ALL of it, not just the new testament) and prayer.
Oh, I just want to leave you with an example from the Bible of people who obeyed God and let His love rule their lives instead of living for themselves and seeking revenge. One of those was Phillip the deacon. (Acts 6:3–6) Remember the apostles chose Stephen and Phillip along with 5 others to help the poor widows. He was also an evangelist (Acts 8:5–8). Keep in mind that he and Stephen had worked together closely and loved each other as brothers, until Stephen was killed and that Paul, also known as Saul, was behind his death. About 20 years later, which was plenty of time for anger to become hate and bitterness toward Paul, that same Paul came to Caesarea where Phillip was living with his wife and 4 daughters who prophesied. (Acts 21:8–9) The next verses tell us how the Holy Spirit revealed to the people that Paul would suffer if he went to Jerusalem as planned. Now what do you think Phillip thought about that? Was he happy to hear that maybe Paul would get treated the same way he treated Stephen? No! He loved Paul and didn't want to see him suffer or worse. He begged Paul not to go, but it was God's will for Paul to go and Paul knew that, and couldn't be talked out of going. That's how God changes our hearts to be like His. Remember even Jesus told us that the way unsaved people would know that we were saved would be because of our love. Not just saying we loved someone but acting it out. When we forgive and love someone and reconcile with them, we're being the most like Jesus that we possibly can be here, because that's how Jesus treated us! There are other examples that are much more obvious, so I chose to reveal one that we often miss seeing. Another one we often miss is the way Jesus always treated Judas, one of the disciples. Jesus showed him just as much love as he did the others. None of them ever suspected Judas would eventually betray Jesus, but Jesus knew it the day He chose Judas to be His disciple. In fact, in some ways you could even say Jesus showed Judas more love then the others. He did all He could to keep Judas with Him and prevent him from being used by Satan. Something we all might want to think on as we read the Gospels and reflect on how He has done the same for each of us as well.
Some other scriptures about this subject that may help you are: 1 John 2:9–11; 1 John 3:11–15; 1 John 3:16–18; 1 John 4:7–8; 1 Peter 2:23; Ephesians 5:1–2;
First Jesus says we must forgive them. This is not an option, it's a command. Further, He says we're to forgive them the same way He forgave us. So let's look at how He forgave us. He did so while we were still His enemy. (Romans 5:10, Col 1:21; Col 3:13) So He didn't wait for us to change how we felt about Him or how we thought about Him, He forgave us regardless of how we thought and acted at the time. When Jesus forgave us, He also poured His love into our hearts so that we could love Him and other people. that's important, because Jesus also wants us to love the person who hurt us so badly. He doesn't say it will be easy, but He doesn't make it an option either. It too is a command. (Luke 6:27-36; Luke 6:35-36; Matthew 5:43-48; Matthew 6:14–15; 1 Peter 3:9; Matthew 5:39–42; Romans 12:17–21) These verses as well as many others, also make it quite clear that Jesus is not saying that we're to say we forgive them and then hope we never see them again. Nor does He want us to just forgive them and pray for them. He expects us to show them they are forgiven and loved by our words and actions. His intention is for us to be reconciled to them if it's at all possible. If, as is likely, they are not saved, then He also wants us to be a channel to them to show them what His love looks like and lead them to salvation.
Let me quickly explain that forgiving someone isn't about how we feel. Most likely we will feel like we don't want to forgive them and may even feel hate for them, as well as anger. But that too Jesus will take care of if we will only obey His Word. He doesn't tell us to forgive and love just for the other persons benefit or His benefit, but for our own benefit! He wants to heal our wounded hearts completely. So we can obey His command by praying and asking His help to forgive them and then telling Him that we are forgiving them in obedience to Him because we love Him. Ask Him to change our hearts so we can view the person who hurt us the way He does. The next step is to find ways to show this person what God's love looks like. Maybe doing something to help them. Our hearts may not want to do this, and we may not feel like we love them, but if we obey God and keep on obeying Him about this, eventually our feelings will match our words and actions, because God will change our hearts and make them more like His.
God tells us that He will treat us the way we treat others. If we forgive, He will forgive us, if we show mercy, He will show us mercy and so on. (James 2:12–13; other scriptures have already been posted above). The problem for us is that we want mercy from God for ourselves. We want Him to love us and give us blessings. We most certainly want Him to show us mercy and grace, because we don't want to have the pay the penalty for our sins, and don't want Him to treat us the way we have treated some others we were angry at in our past. The problem is that while all that is true, we do want Him to take revenge on the person who hurt us and we want Him to shower that person with all of His Wrath. That, my friends, is our sin nature talking, and we can bet that Satan will urge us to continue to think and feel that way too. Jesus tells us to come to Him in prayer and tell Him about it when we get hurt, and when we're angry. He tells us to never let the sun go down on our anger. In other words, don't take it with us into the next day. We're to give it up to Jesus. (Ephesians 4:26–27; Ephesians 4:31–32; James 1:20; Acts 8:23) If we study the effect of anger on us, anger that we allow to continue to stay in our hearts, we find that it causes our hearts to become hard, and our love to become cold, and it turns into hate, and bitterness and causes us to become captive to sin and Satan. No, we don't lose our salvation, but we are losing rewards and blessings, and most off we're causing our Savior pain and bringing dishonor to His Name and to the Church. So it's very important to not let anger continue in our hearts, but to give it to the Lord instead, so He can heal our heart.
God heals us and changes us to be more like Him through His Word. That's why He commands us to spend time in His Word daily. He loves us, and wants us to know Him and to know His Will for us. The only way we can do that is through knowing His Word (ALL of it, not just the new testament) and prayer.
Oh, I just want to leave you with an example from the Bible of people who obeyed God and let His love rule their lives instead of living for themselves and seeking revenge. One of those was Phillip the deacon. (Acts 6:3–6) Remember the apostles chose Stephen and Phillip along with 5 others to help the poor widows. He was also an evangelist (Acts 8:5–8). Keep in mind that he and Stephen had worked together closely and loved each other as brothers, until Stephen was killed and that Paul, also known as Saul, was behind his death. About 20 years later, which was plenty of time for anger to become hate and bitterness toward Paul, that same Paul came to Caesarea where Phillip was living with his wife and 4 daughters who prophesied. (Acts 21:8–9) The next verses tell us how the Holy Spirit revealed to the people that Paul would suffer if he went to Jerusalem as planned. Now what do you think Phillip thought about that? Was he happy to hear that maybe Paul would get treated the same way he treated Stephen? No! He loved Paul and didn't want to see him suffer or worse. He begged Paul not to go, but it was God's will for Paul to go and Paul knew that, and couldn't be talked out of going. That's how God changes our hearts to be like His. Remember even Jesus told us that the way unsaved people would know that we were saved would be because of our love. Not just saying we loved someone but acting it out. When we forgive and love someone and reconcile with them, we're being the most like Jesus that we possibly can be here, because that's how Jesus treated us! There are other examples that are much more obvious, so I chose to reveal one that we often miss seeing. Another one we often miss is the way Jesus always treated Judas, one of the disciples. Jesus showed him just as much love as he did the others. None of them ever suspected Judas would eventually betray Jesus, but Jesus knew it the day He chose Judas to be His disciple. In fact, in some ways you could even say Jesus showed Judas more love then the others. He did all He could to keep Judas with Him and prevent him from being used by Satan. Something we all might want to think on as we read the Gospels and reflect on how He has done the same for each of us as well.
Some other scriptures about this subject that may help you are: 1 John 2:9–11; 1 John 3:11–15; 1 John 3:16–18; 1 John 4:7–8; 1 Peter 2:23; Ephesians 5:1–2;
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