Forgiveness Is Practical

Love . . . does not take into account a wrong suffered.
–1 Corinthians 13:4–5

We ought to forgive others unconditionally–even the sorry people who refuse to say “I’m sorry”–because the alternative is uncomfortable.

Let me illustrate what I mean. If you believe that you can forgive only those people who say “I’m sorry,” that means you have to spend your life confronting people about every slight, insult, or other offense against you. Do you really want to track down every single person who wrongs you, no matter how small the transgression, and say, “I have something personal I need to talk to you about”? If you live your life that way, people are going to run for the hills when they see you coming. It’s just uncomfortable.

Instead, why not overlook those minor transgressions? Proverbs 19:11 says, “A man’s discretion makes him slow to anger, and it is his glory to overlook a transgression.” And in 1 Corinthians 13:5, Paul said that true love “does not take into account a wrong suffered.”

John MacArthur had a good word about this in his book The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness. He wrote, “The heavy emphasis on forgiveness in Scripture is not meant to make us more confrontational, but quite the opposite. When Scripture calls us to have an attitude of forgiveness, the emphasis is always on long-suffering, patience, benevolence, forbearance, kindness, and mercy–not confrontation.”

Demanding repentance from others before we forgive them is not only uncomfortable but also impractical.  Imagine you’ve lost track of somebody who wronged you. They moved away, and you haven’t heard from them in years. Are you doomed to a lifetime of bitterness because your offender didn’t leave a forwarding address? Or what if your offender is incapacitated because of illness–or even dead? Does that mean you can never heal from past wounds? No. Unconditional forgiveness provides a way to let go of the wounds of the past regardless of what your offender does or doesn’t do.

Today’s devotion is adapted from “Forgiving Sorry People Who Aren’t Sorry,” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2015.

John MacArthur, The Freedom and Power of Forgiveness (Crossway, 2009), 122.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org.