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@everydaygodswill

Matthew 6:14-15 NKJV “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Ephesians 4:32 NKJV And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.

In Matthew 6, Jesus spoke this when mankind was under the Law of Moses. Under the Law, we could only be forgiven by God if we forgave. If we didn’t forgive, we were not forgiven. 

In Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3:13, not under the Law, Paul lets us know to forgive because we are forgiven. There’s a difference. Under grace, there’s not a consequence from God of eternal damnation if we don’t forgive. 

Does that mean we should go throughout life holding unforgiveness in our hearts just because we’re under grace? Absolutely not. We should still forgive, but our motivation to forgive is different. Instead of forgiving out of fear, we forgive from a place of gratitude. Because of our appreciation for being forgiven, we can forgive others. We can say to ourselves, “if God can forgive me, based on all the things I’ve done, I can forgive this person.”

It still may not be easy to forgive in certain situations, but the motivation to forgive is ever present and staring at us in the face. Because we’ve been forgiven by God, we can forgive someone else.

#forgiven #forgive #Jesus #didit #gratitude