Breaking Through Justice to Forgiveness

Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cumin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel (Matthew 23:23-24).

What can we do to keep our sense of justice from impeding our willingness to forgive?

First, remember how much we have been forgiven of ourselves. We always give ourselves more slack than we are willing to give others. We need to treat others the way we want to be treated. “Do for others what you would like them to do for you. This is a summary of all that is taught in the law and the prophets” (Matthew 7:12).

Second, ask yourself this question: “Is my withholding forgiveness an act of love which intends to bring that person or persons back into fellowship with me or to a saving knowledge of Christ?” If your answer is no, then you need to rethink your position.

Third, pray before you take any kind of action. Talk to your pastor or counselor before you do anything that might make things worse instead of better. Taking time to think over what you want to do by taking your thoughts to God and other people will keep you from simply reacting to the situation. You want to respond, not react. When you react the situation is controlling you. When you respond you are controlling your actions in light of the situation.

The Church has been divinely called and set apart by God to be the standard of righteousness in the world. However, when we pursue this at the expense of forgiveness the righteousness means little.

Both approaches (bringing to justice and offering forgiveness) have the same goal in mind. Both approaches start with compassion and love for others. But one is much more effective than the other. When we focus on getting other people to be right instead of excelling at being gracious, we are in effect treating the symptoms and not the disease. The problem of more and more Christians struggling with immorality, anger, strife, and contention is not a sign we need to talk more about what people need to do right. It’s a sign that we need more teaching on Christ’s forgiveness.^[i]

^“For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ^” (John 1:17, NIV). How important is the order of those words? Notice it is grace then truth—truth surrounded by grace. Truth without grace leads to hopelessness. Truth with grace frees us to embrace and love the Truth, Jesus Christ.