Luke 6:37 And do not judge, and you shall by no means be judged; and do not condemn, and you shall by no means be condemned; release, and you will be released; Hebrews 8:12 For I [the Lord] will be propitious to their unrighteousnesses, and their sins I shall by no means remember anymore.
Here [Luke 6:37] to pass sentence is to condemn, and to release is to forgive. If we do not condemn, we shall by no means be condemned. Likewise, if we forgive, we shall be forgiven. Years ago I heard what C. H. Spurgeon said in a sermon on forgiveness. In that sermon he pointed out that it is difficult for Christians to forgive others. He said that we may think that we have forgiven someone. However, our forgiveness can be compared to burying a dead dog and allowing the tail to show. After forgiving someone, we may say, "So-and-so offended me, but I have forgiven him." This is to show the "tail" of the "dog." If we have really forgiven someone, we should also forget the offense. Once we have forgiven someone in a matter, we should not mention it again. Every time we mention an offense which supposedly has been forgiven, we are pulling out the tail of the buried dog to show others that the dog has been buried. If we do this, it indicates that we have not released the one who offended us. According to the New Testament, to forgive means to forget and to release. We need to forget the offense and release the offender. Once we have done this, we should never speak of the matter again.
Bible verses are taken from the Recovery Version of the Bible and Words of Ministry from Witness Lee, Life-study of Luke, pp. 125-126. Both are published by Living Stream Ministry, Anaheim, CA. Please visit us at www.emanna.com. Send comments to: [email protected].
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