Love Is the Only Reason for Forgiveness

So, you have been hurt deeply. The person who wronged you may or may not beg for your forgiveness. Should you forgive him?

The answer is a resounding "Yes!" Maybe that's not the question you are asking. Maybe you are asking why should I forgive. Love is the only reason that will satisfy the question of why you should forgive

First, you should love yourself enough to forgive the other person. Unforgiveness imprisons you. It is the slave who runs the household with such an iron fist that the owners are captured in their own house. Unforgiveness is unrelenting. It must be guarded or forgiveness will break through. It must be protected or it will be stolen from you. It has to employ revenge to keep it alive. The revenge is often the way the person must be treated in order to remain unforgiven. Unforgiveness comes out in other relationships. It become bitterness. It poisons the individual who holds onto his unforgiveness. You would forgive if you really loved yourself.

Second, the love for the other person should empower you to forgive. Forgiveness is sometimes scary. Forgiveness means you will open yourself to the same pain you felt when you were betrayed the first time. The person just might betray you again. But your love for the other person demands that you forgive. I guess that's why mothers are so quick to give forgiveness. They love their children so much that they simply can't refuse to forgive.

Third, the love you have received from your Lord is sufficient to grant any other person forgiveness. He loved you so much that He forgave you. He paid the penalty so that all sins could be forgiven. This includes the sins that were committed against you by someone else. He gave that forgiveness to them and and you forgive because He loves that person and He paid for their sins.

God accepts the blood of Jesus as payment for sin. You have a higher standard than God has if you won't accept it too. In fact, you have made Jesus' sacrifice small if you don't give forgiveness.

The only way you can know God's sacrifice for you is to receive it. That is the way you know His love.

That is the only reason for forgiveness.

John 3:16 (ESV)
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.

Romans 5:8 (ESV)
but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.