A Forgiving God, an Unforgiving World

There are some things that are going to follow me for the rest of my life. Mistakes I've made. Circumstances I've been dealt. People I've offended or upset. The world has always been unforgiving, which is why so much of it is in bondage.

     Without forgiveness or mercy, liberty has a hard time flourishing. Without forgiveness, marriages fail, families break up, and friendships lose their longevity. It's seen time and again here.

       An unforgiving society often cripples opportunity for the mistake-maker, inhibiting them from rising into a position of success, and often reducing their access to privilege and resources. 

    If their is no chance at redemption, mistakes and failures of any degree can become lifelong curses.

     God knows that the indefinite condemnation of unforgiveness is not only counterproductive because of its inhibiting of growth, opportunity, and renewal, it becomes a bondage and a slaver, binding people to a lifetime of shame, regret, and stigmatizing. 

     This is why Jesus taught what He taught and did what He did. He knew that condemnation in life and lack of forgiveness cripples unity and imprisons people in a state of deprivation and exclusion.

Look, the world is always going to be unforgiving and often devoid of mercy, but God isn't. God is a god of mercy. Unforgiveness is a great divider, slaver, and oppressor. In God's Kingdom, not only is liberty an absolute, but liberty gets its substance in Heaven from God's perfect mercy. That's how I view it.

Even though I will probably be marked for life in the eyes of many people here, and even systems of this society may mark me, I will not be bound by these things eternally. Jesus' blood can wash away any sin or stigma.

God knows that the only way a broken family, a divided nation, and a fallen world can heal is when mercy and forgiveness are held to a higher value than revenge, greed, and pride. 

Where children forgive parents, spouses forgive one another, and groups let go of hate towards others, and governments don't lay down the oppressive gavel of mercy-deprived harshness at all ebbs and turns of the system.

Even though the world is unforgiving, the whole purpose of Jesus' sacrifice was a payment for the sins of the world that led to this oppressive unforgiveness.

An unforgiving world is never truly free.

An unforgiving person puts himself in invisible chains that, because of the obscurity of the chains, can be very difficult to overcome.

The only way liberty can flourish is in a society that extends mercy and forgiveness to a much higher degree than brutality.