Love Your Enemies: A How To GuideSample

Day 3: Redemptive Love for Our Enemies: Forgive them

Here’s some bad news for all of us - Jesus’ call to forgive is universal and absolute. Such a bummer, because I like holding onto my righteous anger!

Forgiveness is rarely an easy thing. Regardless of whether it was minor or major, forgiving those who have wronged us can sometimes seem like an insurmountable task. So how do we do it? How do we pull ourselves out of our funk and muster the character to forgive our enemies?

Ephesians 4:3-32 offers an excellent prescription, “Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice,” Paul says. “Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ forgave you.”

Just as Christ forgave us…the key to the lock! We’ve been pardoned, so we must pardon others. Yes, it’s searing truth - but is it even possible?

Indeed it is! A beautiful example of it occurs in THE BEST OF ENEMIES when Ann acts in true proactive forgiveness toward C.P. by helping his mentally challenged, institutionalized son. The boy’s emotional condition deteriorates quickly when he is assigned a roommate, and C.P. can’t pull sufficient strings to change the situation. But Ann has connections at the hospital, and arranges for C.P.’s son to return to a room he doesn’t have to share. At this point in their rocky relationship, C.P. has not asked to be forgiven for the way he has treated her. He hasn’t really done anything to indicate he “deserves” forgiveness. Ann simply chooses to offer it – removing from herself all bitterness, rage, anger, brawling, slander and malice.

Considering what had been done to her, by both C.P. and his compatriots in the racist South, society would have understood her anger. But the God who created both her and C.P. wouldn’t stand for it – and doesn’t stand for it with us, either. It is as simple, and as difficult, as Colossians 3:13: “Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you.”