Learn to Forgive Others

"14 For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: 15 But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses" (Matthew 6:14 - 15). My beloved Brother or Sister in Christ, thousands of people at this end of the world, I am afraid, never reflect on the need to FORGIVE others. I propose to examine the subject of FORGIVENESS in this devotion, and I invite the attention of all who care for their souls, and want to be saved to read this devotion prayerfully. Do we believe in the "resurrection of our bodies"? Then let us see to it that we know something by experience of the "forgiveness of our sins" and of our need to also forgive others who offend us.

My dear Brother or Sister in Christ, let us always remember that all people need forgiveness, because all people are sinners. He that does not know this, knows nothing in Christianity. It is the very A B C's of Christianity, that a man should know his right place in the sight of God, and understand it well. We are all great sinners. "There is none righteous, no, not one." "All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God" (Romans 3:10, 23). Sinners we were born, and sinners we have been all our lives. We become used to sin naturally from the very first day we are born. No child ever needs schooling and education to teach it to do wrong. No devil, or bad companion, ever leads us into such wickedness as our own hearts. We must either be forgiven, or be lost eternally as the Bible forceful points out that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23).

Again dear Reader, let me repeat that we are all guilty sinners in the sight of God. We have broken His Holy LAW. We have transgressed His precepts. We have not done His will. There is NOT a commandment in all the ten which does not condemn us. If we have not broken it by our actions, we have in word; if we have not broken it in word, we have in thought and imagination — and that continually. Tried by the standard of Matthew chapter 5, there is none of us that is not guilty. All the world is "guilty before God." And "as it is appointed unto people once to die, and after this comes the judgment", we must either be forgiven, or forever perish (Romans 3:19; Hebrews 9:27).

My dear Brother or Sister in Christ, probably you may not feel your need of forgiveness now. But a time may come when you will want it. The Lord in His mercy should grant that that you do not defer your need of forgiveness until it is too late. Let me end by giving an earnest invitation to everyone who reads this devotion and desires FORGIVENESS. I know not who you are, or what you have done in the past. But I say boldly, Come to CHRIST by faith, and you shall have pardon. High or low, rich or poor, young men and young women, old people and children — you cannot be worse than Manasseh and Paul before their conversion — than David and Peter after their conversion. Have you killed someone? Have you aborted a baby? Have you stolen? Have you committed fornication or adultery? No sin is too gross for Christ to forgive. Just come to Him with a remorseful heart. Plead for His forgiveness and you shall be freely forgiven of your sins. And as the Saviour forgive us, He bids us to also forgive those who have wronged us (see Matthew 6:14-15). May the Lord help you to forgive all who have ever wronged you.

Paul Fonsi