THE FOLLY OF UN-FORGIVENESS

"Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much." - Oscar Wilde

Un-forgiveness

How beautiful and yet how rare is forgiveness! Christ taught His disciples to forgive their enemies, and in this respect as in all others, He is our great example. He said amid the agonies of the crucifixion, "Father forgive them." A deaf mute being asked, "What is forgiveness?" took a pencil and wrote, "It is the odor which a flower yields when trampled upon," and Sir William Jones has given us the following extract from the Persian poet Sadi - The sandal-tree perfumes when riven, The axe that laid it low; let man, who hopes to be forgiven, forgive and bless his foe.

In a world where over 50% of our movies center on revenge and hate, bitterness and the ability to Rambo your enemy is fashionable, and the virtue of forgiveness seems old fashioned. But if truth be told few things make a man truly great as the power to forgive. If in doubt ask Nelson Mandela.

On the reverse, and to quote from Nelson Mandela. ‘Not to forgive those who hurt you is like drinking poison and hoping it will kill your enemy. One day a visitor leaned on the old fence around a farm while he watched an old farmer plowing with a mule. After a while, the visitor said, "I don't like to tell you how to run your business, but you could save yourself a lot of work by saying, 'Gee' and 'Haw' to that mule instead of just tugging on those lines." The old farmer pulled a big handkerchief from his pocket and wiped his face. Then he said, "Reckon you're right, but this animal kicked me five years ago and I ain't spoke to him since."

The moral of the story seems obvious; A grudge is harder on the one who holds it than the one it is held against. The Apostle Paul said that we are to forgive any man if we have a quarrel against him. Just like Christ forgave us, we are to forgive each other (Col. 3:13). Friend, if God and Christ can extend mercy to you for your sins, surely you can be merciful to those who offend you.