Why then is it that we, as human beings, are so eager and willing to receive forgiveness, but are often so unwilling to give forgiveness to someone else? It is a product of a “me-centered” gospel.

Jesus addressed the issue straight on –

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6: 14-15

In Matthew 18: 23-35 (Read it here). Jesus tells the parable of the servant who owed an impossible amount of money to the king. In his compassion, the king forgave the debt and the man left his presence only to show no compassion to someone else.

The servant didn’t get it. He thought he could be the beneficiary of grace, but he had no inclination to respond likewise to others.

God is amazing in His power to forgive as He removes “our sins as far as the east is from the west”(Psalm 103:12).

We are not God. Forgiving is often difficult for us, but it is an essential action for the follower of Christ as Paul wrote to the Colossians encouraging us to be active in our pursuit.

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Colossians 3: 12-13

Are we willing to forgive?