You Must Totally Forgive

This is perhaps the toughest subject to address. I will do my best to explain how forgiveness works.

While I'm at it, I'm going to complain about anti-christian people who condemn Christianity as a religion of hatred. These people are the ones who need to learn forgiveness the most. All those atrocities they speak of were committed by the Roman Catholic Church, which I consider to be a heresy and not the original Christianity practiced by the humble and generous Christians of the early church. These anti-Christian people, who pretend to be much smarter than me by exhausting my patience with a criminal record of abuses by clergy and lots of clever four-letter words, are the stupid ones because they refuse to acknowledge the truth - that they are baleful sinners in desperate need of a Messiah. I will emphatically state right here that I will not wear my fingertips out typing Bible passages to enlighten ignoramuses who are simply looking for a fight.

Whew. Sorry. My point is that forgiveness is an essential part of being Christian and these uneducated folks who go out of their way to slander good people like me can't seem to get it past their thick skulls that any God that preaches loving one's enemies must be a kind and gentle Supreme Being. As Christians we are called to love our neighbors despite their personality quirks or moral flaws. I forgive these anti-Christians and I can show you how to do it too.

You must totally forgive your enemy. Don't simply say you forgive him, but pray for his benefit, bless him, refuse to discuss the hurt he did or intimidate him, want him to forgive himself, let him retain his honor, and wish him protection from his greatest fear. This is very difficult, but if you are a Christian, you have the love of God placed in your heart and thus can love your enemies just as Jesus commands you to. You can do anything through Christ who strengthens you, even forgiving your enemies Philippians 4:13).

Of course, if your enemy has committed a crime, you can't just let that go. It is your duty to report that hurtful incident to the authorities. Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and give to God what is God's. Let the authorities punish him, because sometimes human beings need harsh discipline to mature.

What will happen if you don't forgive your enemy? You grieve the Holy Spirit and force Him to repeal the working of His mighty power. You cause God to not interfere in your life, and He leaves you to cope by your own strength - and you will fail. Unforgiveness implies that you want to take over God's job of fulfilling vengeance, and this makes Him your enemy. Unforgiveness shows a contempt for His Son's sacrifice on the cross because you do not forgive your unworthy enemy - remember that you were once unworthy too. Unforgiveness ruins God's plan of reconciliation - He wants your enemy to be filled with the same love you have been given. You interrupt the flow of grace when you don't pass it on. Recall Matthew 18:23-35; the servant who owed his master a large sum of money had his debt forgiven, but he did not forgive one of his debtors the smaller amount owed to him. He began to choke the debtor, demanding to be paid what he was owed, but the master caught the unforgiving servant and threw him into jail.

You must understand that by not forgiving the sins of your enemy, your own sins are not forgiven. Matthew 6:12 says that our trespasses are forgiven to the same degree that we forgive the trespasses of others. This is part of the Golden Rule ('Do unto others as you would have them do unto you'). You will be blessed in proportion to the degree that you bless your enemies as well. If you do not forgive even one person, you are committing a sin that leads unto death, and this continuing sin cannot be forgiven - you must eradicate it by forgiving the offender.

You must realize that you must strive to be God-like in your attitudes. This means imitating Jesus in all his attributes, including forgiveness.

Your enemy may not realize he is hurting you, or he may be acting vindictively because he is in spiritual pain. You must learn compassion for these kinds of people because you don't actually know how bad things might be for them. In fact, you may be the only person who intercedes for them before God. Even if your enemy has committed the sin of blasphemy against the Holy Spirit (rejecting Christ after becoming a mature Christian, with deliberate forethought) you should still pity them as you would pity a sex offender.

God is willing to forgive the worst sinners. Take Paul, for example. He was a Pharisee that persecuted the early Christians, but Jesus struck him blind and led him to Ananias, who healed him and took him to the disciples at Damascus for training (Acts 9:1-20). God had a very special plan for Paul (Acts 9:15), and he has a wonderful plan for your enemy if he would only accept Christ and listen to God. Keep that in mind as you pray for your enemies.

Forgiving someone takes practice. At first, you may not do so wholeheartedly, but out of a sense of duty. Do it every day. It will dull the pain.

Remember that your enemy is being used by the devil to cause strife and to wear you down. Your enemy is so blinded by evil that he doesn't even realize that he's being hurtful. He is a forlorn and miserable person, so regard him with pity, not anger, when you forgive him.

I find the following words help when I forgive my enemies:

"Dear Jesus I forgive so-and-so and I bless him with wisdom, revelation, knowledge, insight, understanding, peace, joy, mercy, health, long life, protection, wealth, prosperity, and honor. I thank you Father in the name of Jesus that you will send the Holy Spirit to him to convict him of unrighteousness and lead him to repentance. I also thank you Father in the name of Jesus that you will put many laborers in his path."

Keep practicing. I know its very hard, and it seems unfair, but you will get used to it, and it will help you control your anger. After two years of forgiving my enemies, I am now quite resistant to vulgarities projectile vomited at me by non-Christians.

As you bless and forgive your enemies, may God bless you abundantly in return.

Love you. God Bless.

Molatar Seth Pyrargent.
Dragon, Evangelist, Ranger.

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