Recently, after my children had a disagreement and one apologized to the other, the response to the apology came as, “Don’t worry about it, its OK.” Angela quickly responded, “No, its not OK. We should forgive others, but forgiveness does not mean that its OK to do wrong things.” Yes, thats one reason why I love her so much, wisdom sometimes oozes out of her by accident. This was one of those times.
As they discussed forgiveness, I immediately began to think about the scriptural applications, possible sermon illustrations, and this blog post. The Bible promises us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9).” What the Bible does not say is that God excuses our sins. God grants us forgiveness through the shed blood of Jesus, but the Bible never says that it is OK for us to sin, in fact, it says just the opposite, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound? By no means (Romans 8:1-2)!”
Just as God does not say our sins are OK, neither should we excuse the sins of others against us or others as, OK. We should forgive (Jesus said we should forgive a lot), but forgiveness does not mean that we simply dismiss the sin or slight towards us. Part of loving others is helping them to move away from sin and toward godliness. Reticence to call sin what it is does not serve others well in our goal to help them grow in godliness. The most godly thing we can do as believers is to recognize sin at its worst, and to forgive anyway, as Christ did. In so doing, we both model the love of Christ in forgiving sin and call our brothers and sisters away from their sin and toward a more godly way of life.
It is not OK when someone sins against you, but it can and should be forgiven. Angela regularly teaches me, sometimes she even does it by accident. She is a precious gem to me.
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