MATTHEW 6:14-15 – For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
THEME OF THE DAY. THE MOST DANGEROUS SIN IN A CHRISTIAN’S LIFE. As you each ponder the answer to the theme of the day, I tried it first on my wife. I asked her, “What is the most dangerous sin in a Christian’s life?” She paused and said, “Not to love the Lord with all your heart and mind.” That’s a pretty good answer and certainly would be high on the “most dangerous sins” list. However, I was looking more in the direction of what would poison a Christian’s walk with God; what would create a joyless Christian experience; and what would produce a cold and bitter heart. The “what” in my last sentence is what may well be the most dangerous sin in a Christian’s life. It is identified by Jesus in today’s scripture – an unforgiving heart. Consider three reasons why an unforgiving heart is so serious and dangerous.
First, an unforgiving heart prevents its owner from experiencing the forgiveness of God. Jesus said, “If you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” The greatest thing and most liberating experience in life is to know the forgiveness of sin. Nothing can provide soul-liberating joy more than knowing our many sins against God have been forgiven. Conversely, the worst thing and most oppressive experience in life is to be in a state of withholding forgiveness to others and not knowing the forgiveness of God personally.
But there are other reasons why the sin of an unforgiving heart in the lives of Christians might be “sin number one” on the danger scale. An unforgiving heart makes Christians as unlike their Savior as possible. What a contradiction to harbor an unforgiving heart to anyone for anything and yet claim to be pursuing the Christian life which is to pursue being like Christ. In a dialogue with Jesus, Peter had a question for Him concerning forgiveness – “Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times” (Matthew 18:21-22). Jesus is not giving us a “forgiveness quota”. He is teaching us that forgiveness knows no limit. As God forgives us over and over, we, too, are to forgive over and over. It makes us like Jesus, the forgiving Savior.
A third reason why harboring an unforgiving heart might be the most dangerous sin in a Christian’s life is because it will remove all joy, peace, and contentment God offers in the Christian life. Refuse to forgive those who have hurt and sinned against us and God will not allow us to enjoy Him. The most painful form of chastisement from the Lord is a loss of the sense of His presence which means the withholding of His joy and peace. And this will always happen to a Christian harboring unforgiveness. The God who forgives will not show favor to a child of His who refuses to forgive.
The greatest gift God gives us is forgiveness. The greatest thing we may withhold from a person is forgiveness. It reveals a lack of love and forgetfulness of God’s forgiveness to us.
PRAYER: “Father, please help me to be forgiving to others as I have been forgiven by You.”
QUOTE: “An unforgiving heart is a heart that has either forgotten God’s forgiveness or never experienced it.”