Matthew 18:21-22- “Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven, but seventy-seven times.
The most difficult thing many struggle with is to be able to forgive someone who has hurt you, harmed you, abused you or even tried to frame you for things you didn’t do or deserve. Jesus teaches us to forgive- meaning we must forgive our brothers, sisters and enemies too.
Regardless of whether sinners repent or not it is important to keep our heart upright. Tell me, if we continue to hold anger, resentment, hate, frustration and revengeful attitude, how much are we damaging ourselves? How many valuable years are we wasting holding grudges and straightening people out than focus on our healing and elevation? The Bible says, “Vengeance is mine, says the lord” meaning God knows best how to handle your naysayers and persecutors.
When Jesus went on the cross, he told Father, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do” meaning sinners often commit crimes under the influence of devil energy- envy, hate, lies, lust and greed however, when the influence is gone, many repent and it becomes our duty to forgive because knowingly unknowingly when we sinned infinite……God already forgave us.
If he can stoop down to lift us, forgive us, why can’t we stoop to forgive others? Why can’t we be kind, compassionate? Everybody deserves a chance so why not those who hurt us? Tell me are we so perfect? Haven’t we done things we are not proud of? We still continue to thrive because God forgave us, then who are we to punish those who are down in shame, guilt, regret for hurting us?
If Father put us on the cross to save someone, we must trust him like Jesus did. Father gave his only son as ransom, a substitutionary atonement to save sinners to enable them reconcile with God and humanity. Why did he do that? He did that because he loves children who left the kingdom of God equally to those who stayed. He wants them all to leave the kingdom of devil and come back home.
We are closest to God in prayers, in spirit, in guilt, in shame, in repentance because that’s when we look within. Knowing that an innocent died for our sins, when we repent we have taken the first step to get right with God- the condition is- do not repeat your mistake and never sin again because Father sacrificed someone to take your punishment. Jesus says, Forgive, Jesus does not force us to forget or allow people who hurt us, back in.
Bhagavad Gita Chapter 4 verse 7 says, “Whenever there is a predominant rise in unrighteousness, O’ Arjuna, at that time, I will manifest myself on Earth to destroy evil and protect the righteous”.
That’s why we have activists, revolutionary movements, protests, courts of laws and capital punishments however, Krishna also says….for you to be able to forgive someone, you must be a divine person