Good morning everyone,

Luke 7:47-Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much. But he who is forgiven little, loves little."

All of us at some point have been sinned against. When you consider what the person did and the magnitude of what they may have done to you, do you then consider what you have done to Jesus eventually? Do you eventually conclude that since you are forgiven much, you pray to genuinely forgive as well? If we don’t eventually forgive, we have allowed ourselves to become the ultimate judge of our sins over and against other people and their sins. If that is how we are living then we have become unloving and self-righteous!

The fact that we do not see our own sin just as sick as another’s is to not see it in the light of a personal relationship with Christ, humbled by our own sins being forgiven (continually!) To become judgmental, cold, and unforgiving is to not experience the magnitude of the cross through confessing sins and receiving forgiveness. But pridefully we dwell on the offenses done to us, and don’t deal with our own sins against others (or simply against God). To know that you have committed a offense against someone and have them forgive you, is to experience great love and humility from them. Even if we profess Christianity, the practice of it is rooted in humility. In true humility we sense that we are forgiven children accepted by the highest love that we don’t deserve because of how much we sin(ned) against God.

It takes genuine humility to genuinely forgive. It takes humility because when we get offended it is because someone has not affirmmed who we esteem ourselves to be. Yet whatever we esteem ourselves to be while being offended and holding a grudge, can the offense compare to the Son of God being spit on and killed by people He created? When we are easily offended and find it hard to forgive, we are usually holding onto an image that we perceive ourselves to be, and not the image God is conforming us to become in Christ. In any relationship comes the potential to be continually offended, but it is our choice whether we decide to grow to love in the humble image of Christ or continue to love little in our own self-inflated pride?

In His Love, Ld