Forgive as you have been forgiven. Okay, you got me on this one. It is humanly impossible to forgive as we have been forgiven. After all, God has forgiven not only what we have done before this moment, but everything we will do throughout our entire life. Can you say the same? I cannot. Unfortunately my human side escapes all too often and I hold people accountable for things that I could just as easily overlook or forgive.
Colossians 3:13 King James Version (KJV)
13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Forgiveness is a big word and can sometimes require a large effort on our part. People in our world will do things overtly, covertly or by mistake that offend us. We hve a choice, however, in the way we deal with them. We can take a breath and understand they are just as human and fallible as us, or we can react and inspire hard feelings or reflect a lack of understanding for the teaching of the Holy Bible.
Don’t get me wrong, I do not profess to have all the answers and always treat people exactly right. But I do profess to love God and I am constantly trying to understand his instructions. Everyone deserves forgiveness, no matter how heinous their transgression.
We may not like this truth. It flies in the face of our idea of justice. When people do bad things they should be punished. We do bad things all the time. If you do not believe me refer back to the A topic of this A to Z challenge, Admit. In the video clip Kirk Cameron can explain it quite succinctly. We ALL sin. We all deserve punishment, but God chooses to forgive us if we ask. Why should we not try to aspire to do the same?
Living the J.O.Y. Principle 
I think forgiveness shows a sign of strength. It takes a lot of courage to apologize and forgive.
LikeLike
People often get confused about being punished vs being forgiven. You can have both. Being punished for something does not mean you are not forgiven. And being forgiven doesn’t mean you can avoid the punishment…
Forgiving can be difficult. And forgiving as we have been forgiven is next to impossible, as we are not God. We can only attempt to be like Christ. There is no being like Christ. He was sinless. We…not so much so, except by grace.
Nice post.
http://www.mainelywrite.blogspot.com
LikeLike
Great post. I definitely believe eveyrone deserves forgiveness, but sometimes we’re too absorbed in our human sense of self-righteousness that we refuse to forgive people.
LikeLike
One difference maybe, that they don’t ask us for forgiviness…?? We do ask for forgiviness in the form of prayer. Very hard, and not something we’ll ever be able to do completely, but we must keep trying.
LikeLike
Forgiveness isn’t always easy; no one promised it would be. But God died for the sins of ALL, and if He can forgive the most heinous sins, we need to do the same.
LikeLike
Forgiveness is the way to go~
LikeLike
Excellent and inspiring!
LikeLike
Forgiveness or asking for forgiveness is very hard for those with strong-held pride, and a sense of righteousness.
Over from the A to Z.
LikeLike