It is always difficult working with people who constantly do the same mistakes or repeatedly commit the same offences. In marital struggles I will hear one frustrated spouse exasperate how their partner is so unloving because “this is the third time this week that they have ….” Continued offenses are difficult to handle, the offences seem to scream loudly proving that the person does not care about you and that you are not important enough in their life for them to even make an effort to change.
It is in this context that Jesus speaks saying that if our friend or family member “sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” (Luke 17:4). Forgiveness on our part is essential. Yet the scripture exhorts us to go beyond forgiving. We are not just to forgive but are exhorted to love as well. In 1 John 4:8 we are told that “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”
Well, we can say, “okay I do love them, I do care about them, I just wish that they would not constantly do ….”. But here is the problem, for loving involves more than just a mental assent to liking the person if they would quit doing reprehensible actions. 1 Cor. 13:5 says that love, “keeps no record of wrongs” (NIV).
In the Greek language, this phrase of not keeping a record of wrongs was an accounting term meaning that there was not ledger account recorded listing the wrongs which were accomplished. If we are truly loving others then we will not keep that record of the wrongs done. Such love and such patient choosing to not keep records of other’s faults can only be accomplished with the help of our Lord Jesus.
Take a moment to ask Jesus for His strength and His love so that we will not get caught in recording or holding onto the wrongs that others have committed towards us.
Recent Comments