Being the end of the month, I guess many of us are busy paying bills.
We owe Reliant Energy, Visa or Master Card, and Banks for our house
or cars. Every month we are trying to pay off some of our debts. Imagine,
when you open your Visa statement and see this note: Because of your
good record, we have decided to reward you by canceling your remaining
balance of $1000! Your debt is being forgiven. You probably will say,
"Now I can go out and charge some more!"
In recent months we read news about Bono, a well-known rock musician
urging the US and other western government to forgive the loans owed
by some of the poor 3rd world countries. When there are unpaid debts
between Nations or individuals, relationships are affected. When I
owe you something, either money or a favor, it will strain our relationship.
Whenever I see you, it will remind me of the debt I owe you. That
queasy feeling will linger until I pay off my debt.
This 5th petition in the Lord's Prayer is about debts and forgiveness.
It is about the debts we owe God and others, and the debts others
owe us. This petition is about canceling, and forgiving such debts.
There is a simple truth: Since God has so thoroughly and completely
forgiven us, we too are expected to forgive others
I. The debts I owe.
"Forgive our debts……" To whom and what do we owe? First of all,
since this prayer is directed to our heavenly father, it suggests
that we owe him something.
1. The debts I owe God.
This certainly is not a very popular concept nowadays. When we come
to God, we say, take me as I am, I am ok, you're ok. Yes, each one
of us is uniquely and wonderfully created by God. We are full of value
and dignity. On the other hand, coming before this holy God, morally
we are corrupt and broken. Romans 3:23, "All have sinned and come
short of God's glory". Not just the non-Christians, but Christians
as well. As a follower of Jesus Christ, looking into the mirror of
God's holiness, all I see is my sinfulness, how far I have fallen
short of his glory. How so? How about taking a look at the 10 commandments.
The first commandment states that I am the lord your God…you shall
have no other gods before me. This means that God is to be pre-eminent,
to be first in my life. However, looking at my life, it's usually
me first. Even in my relationship with him, I want him to give me
what I think is important to me. I want him to help me to achieve
my personal dreams. He is almost like that magic bottle, after rubbing
it three times; a giant will come out and ask what is your wish. Instead
of finding out his wish and serving him, I tell him my wish and expect
him to serve me. Instead of loving him with all my heart, all my soul
and all my mind, I ask him to help me so I can love and enjoy my life
to its fullest. It is a rather man centered relationship with God.
I owe God for not putting him first in my life.
Then as we take a look at some of the other commandments: honor our
parents, you shall not murder, you shall not commit adultery, you
shall not steal, you shall not give false testimony, you shall not
covet your neighbor's belonging. If we stand before these 10 commandments
as a mirror, its not a very pretty picture, right? It will be very
hard to say I am ok, you're ok. Not only do we owe him for not putting
him first, we also come short of his standards. Before him, we are
full of debts.
Moreover, we also owe Him our gratitude. In our previous study of
the book of Ephesians, we learned that as followers of Jesus Christ,
he has given us every kind of heavenly blessings. He has given us
eternal life. His promise of caring for us and being with us. He brings
healing into our broken hearts and reconciles us with each other.
Out of his followers, he created a new community of peace and love.
A community where we encourage and love each other.
Besides these heavenly blessings, there's also physical and material
blessings. As we reflect upon our lives, we have a place to put our
pillows, clothes to cover our bodies and food to keep us healthy.
Are we thankful? Are we content with what we have? Very often, we
question and complain to God when we don't receive what we want. We
harbor resentment and bitterness towards God when we perceive that
he is not helping us to enjoy our life the way we want. We don't have
joy, because we are not content, we are never satisfied. We owe him
gratitude.
The more I see myself in his light, the more I see my sins and corruption.
Then I won't say, take me, or bless me. All I can say is: "have mercy
on me, forgive me."
2. The debts I owe others.
Besides owing God, isn't it true that we also owe others? We are
indebted to those around us. First, lets look at Romans 13:8, "Let
no debt remain outstanding, except the continuing debt to love one
another,…." The Bible is telling us that we owe others our love for
them. How so?
When I saw your sad face on Sunday or Friday evening, because I was
so indulged in my own problems, or I was in a hurry to get lunch,
I did not bother to stop and ask how you were. After I got home, I
completely forgot about you. When I noticed that you had not been
coming to church or the fellowship group, I just assumed that you
were busy and didn't give you a call. When I knew that you were having
struggles in your relationship or family life, out of ignorance I
tried to avoid you.
So often we hear individuals say, "Oh, how I wish I could have just
stopped and talked and prayed with him last Sunday. If only I could
be more sensitive." We owe our love to others. Seeing this, we can
only utter, "Father in heaven, forgive us…."
Secondly, Matthew 25:43, "I was a stranger and you did not invite
me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and
in prison and you did not look after me." What does this passage tell
us? When we see others hungry, lacking clothes and alone, we do nothing
about them. We owe those in need.
Thirdly, Romans 12:10, "Honor one another above yourselves." Since
each of us is made in God's image, we have dignity and value. When
I mistreat you, then I owe you honor and respect. Sometimes when we
talk to someone whom we perceive as unimportant to our work or ministry,
or contributes little to our church or fellowship, or we feel this
person has become a burden, we tend to ignore and not to treat him/her
seriously. As practical human beings, we tend to show more respect
and honor to those whom we consider as important, smart or beautiful.
We see people for what they can offer than for who they are. When
we fail to show everyone respect and honor, we are indebted to them.
Therefore as we come before God, all we see is our coming short of
his glory: Both towards him and to one another. We see our brokenness
in the light of his light. When we pray, we can only say, "Father,
forgive our debts; please cancel all that we have owed you…"
II. God forgiving our debts.
What is God's response when we ask for his forgiveness? In 1John
1:9, "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive
us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness." When we tell
him our sins and all that we have owed him and others, he will forgive
and purify us. How so?
You see, God came into the world and became man in the form of Jesus.
He was perfect without sin. God placed all our sins on him. When Jesus
died on the cross, it was not because of anything he had done wrong,
but because of our sins. God put our sins on Jesus and he died for
us. These sins include our past sins, present and future sins. He
also suffered the punishment that was due us. When we put our faith
in him, when we confess our sins to him, these sins are all forgiven.
These debts are being cancelled.
Furthermore, the scriptures fully tell us the extent of this forgiveness.
Psalm 103:10-12, "he does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay
us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above
the earth, so great is his love for those who fear him; as far as
the east is from the west, so far has he removed our transgressions
from us." To forgive means not to hold you accountable to it anymore.
When God took our sins away, its gone. Its like throwing that baseball
out of the park, you can't retrieve it anymore. Or it's like that
delete button on the computer. Once you press it, that file or program
disappears, it's gone. His forgiveness is thorough and complete.
III. We are to forgive others.
The first part of this petition is about the debts we owe God and
others and asking God to forgive us. The second part of this petition
is about others who owe us, and our need to forgive and cancel their
debts. "……as we forgive our debtors." Verses 14 and 15 appears to
be a commentary for this verse: "For if you forgive men when they
sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if
you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your
sins." Superficially it appears as if its tit for tat. I forgive others,
then, God will forgive me. If I don't, then God won't. Thus making
God's forgiveness conditional to my forgiving others. What it means
is that God has forgiven me, and it is expected of me to forgive others.
In Matthew 18:23-35 is a parable to illustrate this point. There
was this servant who owed his master millions of dollars. The master
ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had
be sold to repay the debt. The servant fell on his knees, begging
his master to have patience with him and that he would pay him back
in the future. So the master had pity on him and cancelled his debt
and set him free. When the servant went out, he met a fellow servant
who owed him a few dollars. He refused to show mercy and instead put
him in prison. When the master heard about this, he put this servant
in prison until he paid back all the debts. The moral of this story
is that we are to forgive others as we have been forgiven. When we
for whatever reason refuse to forgive those who have offended us,
it is a sign of our unrepentence.
We know that we have owed others. We also remember clearly how and
what others may have owed us. You probably still remember when you
first came to this church, that person, whom you later found out is
an elder, deacon or a pastor, did not greet or smile at you. You feel
that person owed you a smile, or a loving gesture. You may have been
hurt by a comment that touched your soft spot. You may have felt that
when you were in need several years ago, no one in this congregation
even noticed it. Or we may felt that our spouse or parents owed us
the attention and love we need.
We cannot forget them. We carry them around like a black ledger book.
Just the sight of that person will provoke you to great anger, resentment
and bitterness. You know how miserable it is when you refuse to let
go of the debts that others have owed you. It affects your relationship
with God, not to say about your relationship with others. You have
become a prisoner of resentment and bitterness because of your refusal
to forgive what they have owed you. Isn't it time to let go of this?
Whenever we pray this lord's prayer, "forgive our debts as we forgive
our debtors" is a reminder of our need to forgive others. Since God
has already forgiven all our debts, we too are expected to forgive
our debtors. If we deliberately refuse to forgive others, we begin
to ask, have we really experienced God's forgiveness? Some simple
suggestions that may help us to forgive others:
First, we need to understand that person's humanity. Try to put ourselves
in their shoes. May be they were acting out of ignorance, not knowing
what they said or did. Could it be that he/she was going through a
very difficult time in his/her life that they were impatient and oblivious
of the people around them? That particular comment was not really
meant to hurt anyone. Could it be possible that I was going through
some hard time, thus making me very sensitive to others' comment,
taking it the wrong way? That person is just as human and frail as
I am.
Secondly, surrender the right to get even. After we have been wronged,
we want to get even with him. There are different ways of expressing
it. We may refuse to talk to him/her, refuse to be in the same fellowship
group or church. We make negative and sarcastic remarks about him.
We secretly wish bad things will happen to him. And very often our
getting even occurs in our private fantasies. But this is like an
IV-dripping poison into our system. Yes, we may have the right to
get even, but if we are to forgive, we need to give up this right.
Thirdly, revise our feelings. When we perceive that we are hurt,
our feeling is basically hatred. We wish bad things will happen to
him. As we learn to forgive, we may begin to wish some good will come
his way. Or if he approaches me, I may even shake his hand, but definitely
not a hearty shake. I may also be reminded that the scripture never
teaches us to love those who are lovely and kind. Rather, we are told
to love our enemies.
We forgive others, because God has first forgiven us. Conclusion:
Whenever we come to God, telling him about the debts we owe him and
asking for his forgiveness, he always forgives us immediately, thoroughly
and completely. But, how about you? Are you willing to forgive those
who have wronged you? A friend, someone in this church, a spouse or
parents? When I refuse to forgive, it gives me a feeling that I am
still in control. However, isn't it true that the unforgiving person
is often the most miserable person?
I think of a mother in the East Coast whose son was killed in a heated
argument. The killer was later sentenced to life. Several years later
while reading the Bible, the mother felt that she had not resolved
her angry feelings over her son's death. She visited the prison where
this young man was locked up. As she talked to him, she felt the urge
to forgive him. It was very hard for her. To forgive someone who killed
your son? No way. But as she continued to visit him and study the
Bible with him, her feelings towards him began to change. Eventually
she was able to love and forgive him.
Several years ago, a college student from Korea was killed on an
East coast campus. During the trial, the parents wrote from Korea
expressing their decision to forgive the killer. It's not easy, but
with God's help, its not impossible.
Since God has so graciously and thoroughly forgiven us, our forgiving
of those who had offended us is a part of our response to Him.