Love and Forgiveness

Satan’s plan to lure Jesus into unforgiveness

If you’re having problems forgiving another, welcome to the club. It’s not always easy to forgive others. Do you think it was easy for Jesus to forgive others? I think it was very difficult for him to forgive those then and there who were killing and ridiculing him. What do you think it would have been like? In fact, do you realise that Satan’s final plan against Jesus involved getting him to trip in the area of unforgiveness? Satan has the same plan for you. He wants you to fall in the area of unforgiveness. What Satan determined to do was get the sinless Son of God who had come to take away the sins of the world to fall into sin so that it wouldn’t be possible for him to do it. Anyone who reads the Gospels can see that Jesus didn’t look like he was going to fall to the daily temptations of life as he was going about his daily ministry in the end. Therefore, Satan hatched a plan like he had with Job to bring so much torment and so much suffering in such a short period of time that Jesus would break as a result of the frailty of his humanity.

Jesus sweat drops of blood as a result of how strongly a part of him didn’t want to drink the cup of great suffering that he knew had been given to him to drink.

"Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me; yet not my will, but yours be done." An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him. And being in anguish, he prayed more earnestly, and his sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground. (Luke 22:42-44)

When he saw Peter rise to his aid and strike one of the ones coming to capture him, he faced a choice of whether to show love to the one whose ear had been chopped off and pray for his healing or not.

When Jesus' followers saw what was going to happen, they said, "Lord, should we strike with our swords?" And one of them struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his right ear. But Jesus answered, "No more of this!" And he touched the man's ear and healed him. (Luke 22:49-51)

He faced a choice when he was spat upon.

Then they spit in his face and struck him with their fists. Others slapped him (Matthew 26:67)

He faced a choice when he was punched.

Then some began to spit at him; they blindfolded him, struck him with their fists, and said, "Prophesy!" And the guards took him and beat him. (Mark 14:65)

He faced a choice when he was mocked and ridiculed.

Then Herod and his soldiers ridiculed and mocked him. Dressing him in an elegant robe, they sent him back to Pilate. (Luke 23:11)

He faced a choice when thorns were hammered into his skull.

They stripped him and put a scarlet robe on him, and then twisted together a crown of thorns and set it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand and knelt in front of him and mocked him. "Hail, king of the Jews!" they said. They spit on him, and took the staff and struck him on the head again and again. (Matthew 27:28-30)

He was tired. He was hungry. He was thirsty. He was in pain. He faced a choice when he was told to pick up his cross and carry it.

Carrying his own cross, he went out to the place of the Skull (which in Aramaic is called Golgotha). (John 19:17)

He carried it as far as he physically could before collapsing, but he still had to make that choice. It was his choice to keep his heart right with God while they hammered the nails through his hands. The same is true as they hammered the nails through his feet. At every point, he had to make a choice to respond in the right way and to not hold unforgiveness in his heart. Just a moment of weakness because of the intensity of the temptation would have led him to have lost it and spoken abusively at those around him. If someone really gets on our nerves, most of us will not last very long before we lose it. Jesus knew what was at stake here. One wrong reaction to any of the extreme torments that were put upon him and everything would be lost. He had to keep the love of God in his heart toward all others no matter what.



Jesus is our example

He not only went through all of that torment for us, but he set us an example of what the love of God inside us can stand against. The love of God inside us can overcome every single thing that Satan can throw at us. Jesus was hanging on that cross ready to die. He had nothing left. He had been beaten and tormented for a long time. Yet, while in that state, he saw his mother. He saw the dear lady who had given him birth and cared so deeply for him. She was suffering. Her son was being murdered publicly while being mocked and ridiculed by seemingly all those around him. His face was beaten almost beyond recognition. How could she bear seeing such cruelty and suffering to the one who was so precious to her? His heart went out to her. He was not consumed by himself and what was happening to him. He was consumed by the needs of those around him. He loved them all so deeply even the thief beside him. "Oh Father, have mercy on his mother" his heart cried. Her firstborn son would not be there to care for her and to honour her as she went on to old age. He had chosen to die, but in doing so had left his mother. There was the one who was closest to Jesus. He could take care of her. Despite the fact that Jesus had been suffering so intensely to such a degree that we cannot comprehend, his heart and his mind was not about him but about those around him. He was not moved to bitterness, selfish anger and lashing out at those around him. He was moved by love, compassion and mercy while oppressed in every form by hatred, violence and death. Satan could not move him. Satan could not budge him. The Son of God would not be moved from the deep love in his heart for those around him. He said to the disciple who was closest to him, "your mother", and to his mother, he said, "your son". After this, John took her into his home and looked after her.

When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, "Dear woman, here is your son," and to the disciple, "Here is your mother." From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. (John 19:26-27)

He was not thinking about himself but others. He was concerned about what would happen to his mum after he died and left this earth. What a man! What a being! God, himself, had come down into a human body and shown us his very heart. He would never be corrupted by evil. He, himself, would stand in love despite what anybody did to him. Nothing that was done to him could take away the love that he had. He not only died for us, but he set us an example of how we should treat others despite what may be happening to us at the time or may have happened to us. What an example it is!



Descendants of Cain and Abel

A defining characteristic of God’s being is that he is love, which means a defining characteristic of the Holy Spirit’s being is that he is love. Therefore, a defining characteristic of the new birth that the Holy Spirit wrought in you when you accepted Jesus as your Lord and saviour involves a spirit of love. Cain was religious with his ‘works’ offerings, but he had no love. Whereas, Abel was humble, and he was always ready to acknowledge his faults before God with the fat of his sin offerings. Abel would bring his sins to God, but Cain wanted to remind God of his ‘works’.

In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. (Genesis 4:3-5)

When you attempt to remind God of your good works while ignoring your sin, you show yourself to be a spiritual descendant of Cain. When you humble yourself before God by acknowledging your sins, you show yourself to be a spiritual descendant of Abel. What is your religion about? Is it about how good your works are in comparison to others? Is it about how much better you are than others? Is it nothing about your sin and everything about all those around you? Wake up descendant of Cain! Repent of the judging and unforgiveness in your heart toward those around you whose works do not measure up to your so-called high standard. Your high standard accompanied by judging and unforgiveness is an unacceptable sacrifice to God. If you want to get things right, learn from your brother Abel. He does not focus on how much better he is than others. Rather, he focuses on how short he falls before God. If you truly humble yourself before God, you will gain the humility that you need to love others. It is time to come home. It is time to break the deception that Satan has established in your mind that you’re great and so much better than others. You’re not great. You’re terrible, but you can be great. Humble yourself, and embrace how terrible the judging and unforgiveness in your life is. Then, you will be great.



God’s children forgive

The Apostle John taught us that if we do not love others we are in fact children of the devil and not children of God.

This is how we know who the children of God are and who the children of the devil are: Anyone who does not do what is right is not a child of God; nor is anyone who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:10)

It amazes me that so many people focus on the parts of the Bible that make them look good and don’t focus on the parts of the Bible that make them look bad. Certainly, it is important to have good self-esteem because if you focus on things that make you look bad, you’ll behave even worse as you’ll feel that you’re defeated. Nevertheless, you still need to address the things that are bad. If the Bible says that you need to forgive, you need to forgive. Some people read that the Bible says that they need to forgive so and so, but instead of forgiving so and so, they think about how bad so and so is compared to the Bible. What? That’s crazy. Don’t change the subject in your thinking. Discipline your mind. Discipline it to forgive the person and not go off on some tangent. You need to forgive the person and let go of all your excuses.



Our being forgiven is dependent on us forgiving others

Jesus told a story that dramatically shows us how important it is to really forgive other people. How do we know if we’ve really forgiven someone? It is revealed by how we treat them, or what our attitude is toward them. He said,

"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded. "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.' "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened. "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." (Matthew 18:23-35)

It is all well and good to walk around and talk about how great it is that God has forgiven your sins, but have you forgiven the sins of others? Jesus said very clearly that if you haven’t forgiven the sins of others, God hasn’t forgiven your sin either (Matthew 6:15). Forgive now, and God will forgive you. Remember that you are never far away from God’s forgiveness. You do not need to go out and do anything before God will forgive you. All you need to do is make a decision in your heart. It is with the voice and the heart that God’s perfect forgiveness and salvation occurs. Nevertheless, after you have been forgiven, you may be compelled by the love of God to go out and make certain things right that your unforgiveness produced. Remember though that making these things right does not produce your forgiveness. It confirms it. Therefore, forgive those that you have something against.



Do not judge

Whenever you treat somebody badly, it is usually because you have judged their actions to be deserving of bad treatment in response. This is an aspect of our instinct. You think to yourself that the action that they are making or have made deserves a bad reaction. In fact, you probably think that if you don’t react badly, you will be encouraging them to behave badly again. This is actually all messed up. You never have the right to treat anybody badly regardless of their actions. I’m not talking about those in governing authority to whom God has called to mete out punishment for the ultimate well-being and good of society. I’m talking about you the individual and not the person in a position of authority. As an individual, you have no right to judge someone badly for this is a form of meting out a punishment to them. When you do this, you are judging them. God has clearly forbidden us to judge anybody.

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. (Matthew 7:1-2)

As soon as you justify to yourself treating someone out of love, you have pronounced judgement upon them. You have become their judge, but you are not God. It is not your place to judge them.



When you judge others, you condemn yourself

By failing to have mercy on others who have broken God’s laws, you declare to God the great judge by your actions that no mercy should be shown to you for breaking God’s laws. You therefore condemn yourself. Also, what you are actually doing is enforcing God’s laws upon others when you have been given no authority to do it. By enforcing God’s laws upon others, you are declaring that now is the time of God’s judgement to be enforced upon all by all on this earth. This means that you are condemned because you are punishing somebody that you have been given no authority to punish.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance? But because of your stubbornness and your unrepentant heart, you are storing up wrath against yourself for the day of God's wrath, when his righteous judgment will be revealed. (Romans 2:1-5)

You may feel justified due to the haughtiness of your own heart, but you are not justified before God at all. It’s very simple. One wrong by another plus one wrong by you does not equal zero. One wrong by another plus one wrong by you equals two wrongs. Dear people, it’s time to grow up. In many ways, we live in a cold, heartless world, and you are just another brick in it when you act that way. Rise up above your emotions, and truly fear him to whom we must all give an account.



Withholding love does not bring about God’s righteousness

The truth is that it is not God’s will for you to try and manipulate people into obeying his ways through withholding love to them until they do. You have become deceived in your heart. Your purpose on this earth is not to control and manipulate others by withholding love until they conform to God’s laws. Your purpose on this earth is to love God and to love all. You love God by obeying him, and he commands you to love all. This especially relates to the brothers and sisters in Christ that you have the most contact with every day such as your wife, husband, children, mother, father, etc… Do you not know that the only way to keep God’s commandments is to love all? The Bible says that all of God’s laws can be summarised into one truth and that is that we are to love everybody around us all of the time.

The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:14)

As soon as we deviate from loving those around us, God’s laws will be judging us in some way.



Good to people who are bad to you

If you’re good to people who are good to you and bad to people that are bad to you, how are you any different to everybody else? "I’m very good to those who are good to me" you may say. As true as that may be, it is a load of rubbish because you’re just the same as everybody else is. You’re simply good to those who are good to you and bad to those who are bad to you

Do to others as you would have them do to you. "If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even 'sinners' do that. (Luke 6:31-33)

God has called you to be a light to all of those around you. Do you turn on your light when everything is bright and sunny or when everything is dark? It is when those around you are in darkness that your light is able to shine. That is the light that God has called you to shine forth. If you shine your light when everybody around you is happy and shiny, nobody will even notice that you have a light at all. However, if you shine your light when everybody around you is operating in a spirit of darkness, how bright all will see your light is. They will be drawn to it. Crucify your flesh, and people will be drawn to your light. You will bring many to righteousness because of the love that is in your heart. However, should you continue in your darkness, your place will be with the hypocrites as even hypocrites love those who love them.



Overcome evil with good

You need to understand that you win the hearts of others to God’s laws through love. Think of two equal forces hitting each other. Neither force will give way to the other. When you treat others in the same way to the way they are treating you, you are operating in an equal force to their own. There will be no winner but a stalemate. There is no greater force on this earth than love. Love can truly move mighty mountains in others that nothing else can. The Bible teaches that the best way to overcome evil is with good.

Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody. If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone. Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord. On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head." Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

Love your enemies to death to use an expression. After all, it’s the death of their evil towards you that you really want. If you want them to stop doing evil to you, love them around. People are going to do evil to you anyway, and you are always going to have to use wisdom to protect yourself. Why not win some of them over to God and his ways in the process of having yourself delivered? However, loving people does not mean that you won’t work out a plan to escape from the evil trap that they have caught you in. It does mean though that you won’t try to destroy the soul of the person behind the evil plan. Keep in mind the fact that there is an eternal soul at stake here while you are escaping. Keep eternity in your heart. Keep love in your mind. Then, you will not only escape evil, but you will deliver others from evil at the same time.



Forgiveness has no limits

One of the biggest problems we face is that we place a limit as to how many times we will forgive somebody within a certain period. The Apostle Peter when he was one of the disciples faced that exact problem. "How many times should I forgive" he asked the Lord. "Up to seven times" he said stretching his mind to the furthest limits that God could possibly require of somebody.

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?" Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21-22)

How wrong Peter was to think in that way. God doesn’t require us to forgive any number of times. He just requires us to forgive. We are to forgive for that is how we maintain our character. Also, I want you to note something very important here. The Son of God told mankind to forgive without limit. Is mankind more righteous than God? Does God require us to do something that he, himself, is unwilling to do? God will also forgive you without limit when you come to him and repent. This limitless forgiveness that is available from God to you was not without a great cost. You providing limitless forgiveness to others is not without cost to you either.