The Daily Word

 

Has somebody done you a bad turn today? Are you carrying some form of grudge against someone else because of an incident in the past? If you are a car driver, there are many incidents on the road which irritate us, as one driver tries to outsmart another, sometimes with tragic consequences. Sometimes it is hard to forget something done or said by someone that has hurt you and it may lead to lasting bad feeling between you.

As Christians, we should not harbour such feelings because Jesus told us to ‘Love one another’. Peter asked a question of the Lord concerning his brother Andrew, ‘How often should I forgive my brother if he sins against me?’ Jesus answered effectively that there was no limit to forgiveness. When we came to Jesus to ask for our sins to be forgiven, did He put a limit on forgiveness? No! Past, present and even all future sins that we might commit are all forgiven. We may well suffer the direct consequences of our sin in this life, but eternally as far as God is concerned, our sin is forgiven and forgotten because Jesus paid the price on the cross.

Jesus also told the parable of the unjust servant, whose master forgave him a large debt, and he then went on to punish a fellow servant who owed him a small debt and would not forgive him.

The next aspect of love that we read in 1 Corinthians 13 says this, “Love does not keep a record of wrongs”. Where is there in that statement room for holding a grudge? There is no room! Holding a grudge generally means we want to pay someone back for an offence, real or imagined, that they have committed against us. Where would we be if Jesus held a grudge against us, and His view of what constitutes a sin is far more stringent than our view? We may be wary of trusting someone in view of something that has happened in the past but bad feeling and keeping a record of wrongs is not something that we should engage in.

Let us all honestly look into our hearts and seek to remove any negative thoughts against our fellow believers with God’s help. If not, that bad feeling may ruin the fellowship of the whole church.

Article written by Brian Preston, Elder @SFGH Church