14 Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.
16 “When you go without eating, do not look gloomy like those who only pretend to be holy. They make their faces look very sad. They want to show people they are fasting. What I’m about to tell you is true. They have received their complete reward. 17 But when you go without eating, put olive oil on your head. Wash your face. 18 Then others will not know that you are fasting. Only your Father, who can’t be seen, will know it. Your Father will reward you, because he sees what you do secretly.
Read Matthew 6:14-18 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
In this passage is one of the most challenging sets of verses that I can think of in the whole Bible. The passage we will be focusing on opens with two verses that emphasize the importance of forgiveness and having a forgiving character:
“Forgive other people when they sin against you. If you do, your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive the sins of other people, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (v. 14-15)
This is about as strong of a statement that Jesus can make to emphasize the importance of forgiving others. If we don’t, God won’t forgive us.
Is this a condition for getting into heaven?
Is God sitting in heaven with a list of people who you and I have neglected to forgive and if we end up dying before forgiving the people on the list, we won’t make it?
On the surface, this is what these verses appear to be saying, but I think this idea runs a little deeper than the literal surface. What if these verses aren’t describing God as the keeper of a list of people who we must forgive and instead it is emphasizing something that we must develop as a part of our character?
Part of God’s nature is that He is a forgiver of sins, and He has called us disciples, which is another way to say imitate, or copy, the Master. As disciples, we must try to be like God as much as possible, because we are His representatives here on earth. This means that if God has forgiveness as a key part of His character, we should also place forgiveness in a similar place.
Forgiveness simply means not holding someone’s past against them. If someone has hurt you, simply move on. Don’t dwell on what happened, don’t seek revenge, and don’t badmouth that individual to others. But also, don’t feel like you need to keep a relationship going with that person. Forgiveness does not mean reuniting with that individual or even compromising on what happened.
Forgiveness can also mean leaving yesterday in the past and starting fresh today. Jesus’ death on the cross gives God the freedom to forgive the past and begin each day as a fresh day with us. Without past baggage dragging you down, what could your walk with God be like?
In this passage, we learn that God forgives as we forgive – He wants us to be forgivers of others. This is because He wants us to experience freedom from our past – from both our mistakes and our hurt from others.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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