Christ spoke about unforgiveness, in the form of allegories during his life on earth.
1.The parable of the prodigal son is perhaps the most well-known parable about forgiveness. The father forgives the prodigal son, who left home, squandered away the wealth, repents, and returns home. The father refers to God’s forgiveness to those who regret their sins.
2. The parable of the unforgiving servant.In this parable, a king forgives an enormously large debt of one of his servants. Later, however, that same servant refuses to forgive the small debt of another man. The king hears about this and revoked his prior forgiveness. Jesus concludes by saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart” (Matthew 18:35).
3. After the parable of the unforgiving servant, Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” Matthew 18:21–22 (NKJV)
Yes, seventy times seven! We have to continue forgiving. Hence, forgiveness is not an one-time action.
Thank you so much for this very thoughtful teaching on forgiveness. I especially appreciate where you talked about Satan’s role in unforgiveness. I think sometimes we fail to realize the huge role our enemy plays in not only unforgiveness, but many areas of our lives when we allow him to gain a foothold. May our Lord bless you as you continue share his Word!
Thank you so much Patti.Forgiveness is the basic foundation of Christianity.Satan will do anything so that we do not come closer to Christ.Thanks Patti.
Forgiveness is such an important topic and one we don’t talk about often enough. Thank you for sharing!
Aileen..thank you.Christianity is all about forgiveness and that what Christ teaches us time and again.
Forgiveness can be SO hard when we don’t understand. But OH the freedom and joy of releasing all that unforgiveness to God … priceless! Thank you for this beautiful post, sweet sister! Blessings …
Very True Donna. Also Christ teaches us to do so and the joy and freedom of not holding grudges is unparalleled.