Every relationship involves forgiveness because every relationship involves sinners like ourselves. None of us treat each other perfectly. All of us have said or done things to each other that we wish we had not. This is why forgiveness is one of the keys to maintaining healthy relationships.

Forgiveness says, “you have sinned against me, and I drop the charges against you. I hold you guilty no longer.” If there is no debt between people, then there can be an equal relationship again. That which divided the relationship is no longer there.

The problem that can happen sometimes is that we have people who will never ask us for forgiveness. Maybe they don’t see what they did as sin. Perhaps they are stubborn and won’t admit their sin. Or maybe they just don’t care. The reality is that we can forgive them anyway. We don’t need someone’s admission of guilt in order to forgive someone.

And we should forgive them. First, we should do so because we are called to forgive. Second, we should do so because we know how to forgive. The Christian should know how to forgive because they themselves have been forgiven. Not only have they been forgiven, but they have received the most amount of forgiveness out of anyone else.

There is no one who has sinned more against us, than we have against Christ. Every sin that we have committed is not just against others, but against God as well. King David says this when he says, “Against you, you only, have I sinned (Psalm 51:4a).” So if we are believers, if we are Christians, if we have been saved, we have been given the most amount of forgiveness. 

This is how we know how to forgive. We can forgive because we have been forgiven. We have a massive debt wiped clean. We know what it is like to be given forgiveness. This is how we know how to wipe others’ debts clean. The apostle Paul says in Ephesians 4:32 “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.”

Think About It

Who do you need to forgive?

Whose debt do you need to cancel?

Who, that won’t even ask for forgiveness can you say, I forgive them?

Who do you need to forgive as you have been forgiven?