But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Matthew 6:15 NIV

 

Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse…
Do not repay anyone evil for evil…
If your enemy is hungry, feed him;
If he is thirsty, give him something to drink…
Do not be overcome by evil,
but overcome evil with good.

Romans 12:14, 17, 20 - 21 NIV

 

Forgiving an evildoer does not in any way mean that you condone her/his actions.

Forgiving an evildoer does not mean that you must like the evildoer.

You can’t like a person whose actions are evil.

But you must love him/her.

Love, you see, like forgiveness, is an act of the will —NOT of the emotions.

Once you decide in your will to love the evildoer, hate and unforgiveness will gradually dissipate.

This is how you begin to educate your negative emotions.

----                                                                                                                    

For followers of Jesus, forgiveness of others is never optional.

It’s part and parcel of your baptismal calling.

At baptism, you promised to…

1. reject the kingdom of Satan
2. be a follower of Christ

In order to fully reject Satan, you have to ask God to teach you how to forgive your enemies.

Why?

Because there’s nothing that gratifies the Devil more than people who hold unforgiveness in their hearts!

Why?

Because He knows he can use them to perpetrate further evil!

You see, hate breeds only

• more hate
• more antagonism
• more psychological, physical, emotional and, yes, even spiritual, violence

You have only to look at the number of hate crimes committed in our world to see how this works.

Unforgiveness in any degree is the devil’s playground.

The second part of your calling and promise is to follow Christ.

To follow Christ, you have to love your enemies.

That means you have to forgive them!

‘But I say to you,

love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you…

(My emphasis)

Then Christ gives you the reason WHY.

Listen carefully:

…so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…

Matthew 5:44-45

New American Standard Bible © 1995

(My emphasis)

 

There are two things you must do when dealing with persons who do you evil:

 

1. Once you have judged their actions to be evil, and once you have concluded that there is no desire or intention on their part to acknowledge and amend their ways, you must separate yourself from those persons.

        You must separate yourself physically, emotionally, spiritually, and psychologically.

        In other words, you must get out of evil’s way.

2. Once you have separated yourself from those who perpetrate evil you should maintain an attitude of love, not hate, towards them.

You best express this love by praying fervently for their deliverance from evil. 

In my own confrontation with evil 26 years ago, God gave me the grace to do this.

My diary entry for June 12, 1999, three years into my battle with the Evil One, records:

…I am starting to experience the digging towards deep-rootedness that (my spiritual guide) talked about, and it is in this rootedness, in Jesus’ LOVE and Light, that I see (the persons perpetrating the evil) —i. e. naming evil for what it is, but not condemning or seeking to annihilate (the perpetrators themselves).

 

You Must Make This Essential Distinction

Each and every person is made in God’s image. Each person, therefore, deserves your respect and your love regardless of their actions.

There is always the potential for great good in every evildoer, just as there is always the potential for the worst evil in the holiest of persons.

You and I cannot and must not judge any person, including anyone who perpetrates evil on us or on those whom we love (Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, Romans 2:1, Romans 14:10, 1 Corinthians 4:5, James 4:11).

Only God can fairly judge a person, evildoers included, because only God can see all the angles of each person’s heart. 

Only God can ever know the cause of the particular motivations that might have led the person to the point of committing evil.

We must, however, always judge a person’s evil ACTIONS.

This is why Jesus gave us the means by which we can judge whether a person’s actions are good or evil.

He said:

You will know them by their fruits.
…Every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit. 

Matthew 7: 16, 17 New King James Version

 

If we don’t judge a person’s actions, we run the risk of getting ensnared in the same trap of evil as they are caught in.

This will serve merely to escalate the evil.

This clearly is NOT the Lord’s will for you!

Jesus taught His followers to pray to the Father to

• ‘Deliver us from the evil one’

Matthew 6:13 NIV

 

And Jesus Himself asked His Father to 

• ‘Protect them (His followers) from the evil one’

John 17:5 NIV

 

It is clear, therefore, that the Lord does not want you to be ensnared by evil.

When you learn to make this distinction, you’ll find that it’s far easier to let go of any hatred and unforgiveness that you might be holding towards the perpetrators of evil. 

At the same time, you avoid the trap (set by Satan) of becoming bound to their evil yourself! 

This act alone increases your strength to forgive.

And your strength to forgive increases the power of the Lord within you! 

As a result, you can maintain the spiritual, moral, emotional and psychological upper ground.

You can now, with very good reason, look forward to the healing from evil that God has always wanted, and will always want, for you.

 

 

Forgiveness is a Process, not a One-Off Event

Forgiveness doesn’t happen overnight.

Forgiveness is a process, not a one-off event.

You have to keep renewing your decision to forgive.

As you keep renewing your choice to forgive, your emotions will eventually catch up. It might take some time. But they will.

In my own experience, I found that once I had gathered the will necessary to make the decision to love the unlovable, the Lord changed my feelings —s-l-o-w-l-y.

I needed a great deal of help from the Lord, however, to persistently discipline and educate my emotions to keep in line with my will!

The Lord will help you do the same.

Keep asking Him for grace like I did!

Remember:
A heart that keeps forgiving is a heart that heals fully from pain.

A heart that keeps forgiving is a heart that evil can never penetrate!

 

What Gives You the Strength

to Love —and Then Forgive —Others?

Where do you get the strength that it takes to forgive those who have seriously, even brutally, wounded you in any way.

It’s knowing that YOU are loved without conditions that gives you the strength to forgive.

Always Remember This

Here’s my parting word to you:

Your spouse or boss or best friend, or whoever has inflicted evil on you, is NOT your enemy!

Your enemy is Satan.

Paul the Apostle explains it like this:

We are not fighting against people made of flesh and blood,

But against the evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world,

Against those mighty powers of darkness who rule this world,

And against wicked spirits in the heavenly realms.

 Ephesians 6:12 NLT

Don’t despair if the road seems long and hard.

Christ will walk with you through the process of learning to forgive our enemies.

He will enable you to do what you cannot do on your own.

Your human love on its own is insufficient because it lacks the vastness and depth of God’s love.

This is why the Lord keeps giving you His love.

Here is a good picture of what forgiveness looks like:

Bless your enemies;

(No cursing under your breath)

…Don’t hit back,

Discover beauty in everyone.

…Don’t insist on getting even;

That’s not for you to do.

“I’ll do the judging,” says God.

“I’ll take care of it.”

…If you see your enemy hungry,

Go buy that person lunch,

Or if he’s thirsty; get him a drink.

…Don’t let evil get the best of you;

Get the best of evil by doing good.

Romans 12:21 The Message, p. 329

 (My emphasis)

  Try this exercise …               

What has been your most difficult experience to date of extending forgiveness?

Talk to the Lord about it.

Then ask Him to give you His wisdom for the next time you find yourself in a similar position.

Jot down anything you think is important in your conversation with the Lord.

 

Watch out for Part 8 of this series  

Want to discover once and for all the guaranteed path to forgiving those who do you evil while, at the same time, maintaining your inner peace and joy?

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