Learning How to Forgive Others

By Guomin

One afternoon, Liu Qiang, with a spade over his shoulder, came to his vegetable plot to dig the ground. As soon as he arrived at the field, he found the straight trench had become crooked like a crescent. When he approached and saw, it turned out his neighbor occupied the place on the edge of his field, and an anger immediately welled up inside him. He thought: “You really don’t take me seriously. Why do you occupy so much of my field? No, I must go to reason with you.” While pondering this, he intended to turn around and go to his neighbor’s. At this moment, he recalled that the Lord asked us humans to forgive others seventy times seven, and he prayed to the Lord in his heart: “Lord, You’ve taught us that we should tolerate, be patient with and forgive others. However, when my neighbor occupies my field time after time, I’m burning with anger in my heart, losing tolerance and patience. Lord, may You give me a heart of tolerance and patience so that I can stand witness to satisfy You. I pray in the Lord Jesus’ holy name, Amen!” After his prayer, his anger subsided a little, and thus he did not approach his neighbor.

A few days later one afternoon, Liu Qiang, shouldering a spade, went to make the paddy field drained. He looked up and saw the neighbor’s geese were eating his paddy. As soon as he caught sight of this, he ran to the edge of the field quickly and waved his arms to drive out the geese. Full of anger, he thought: “You’ve gone too far. You don’t keep a close watch on your geese. How bad your heart is! Aren’t you bullying me purposely? I’ve never seen a person like you. I really can’t tolerate it anymore. This time if I don’t go to settle things with you, tomorrow you’ll go further.” He intended to go to reason with his neighbor, but he saw it was almost dark, plus he had some things to deal with at home, so after pondering, he decided to talk to his neighbor the next day. He then shouldered the spade and went home angrily. Seeing he was in anger, his wife asked him: “What’s wrong? Who made you so angry?” He replied indignantly: “Who else could it be? It’s the neighbor in front of us. Several days ago, he occupied the edge of our vegetable plot. Today, his geese ate our paddy. He is pushing me too far. Tomorrow, I must go to reason with him….”

After supper, Liu Qiang’s wife took a chair and seated herself beside him, saying: “You haven’t gone to a gathering for two weeks. Let’s read the Bible together.” Then she opened the Bible and read: “Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus said to him, I say not to you, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22). She fellowshiped: “The Lord Jesus told Peter to forgive his brothers seventy times seven and love his enemies. Then as Christians, shouldn’t we love our enemies too? When we encounter a small thing, if we can’t forbear or be patient with others and insist on arguing with others, this isn’t after the Lord’s will. In this way, which parts of us look like Christians? We should think twice before we act. Don’t dishonor the Lord’s name for our impulse.” Hearing her words, he thought for a while and said: “Yes, you are right. We believers in the Lord surely should practice the Lord’s words and forgive others. But I don’t understand why the Lord Jesus asked Peter to forgive his brothers seventy times seven. Who can do it? I can’t forgive others even twice. Alas, what’s the Lord’s will? How can we meet this requirement of the Lord?”

Seeing his tone had become gentle, Liu Qing’s wife continued: “As for the Lord’s requirement of us forgiving others seventy times seven, though it’s not easy for us to achieve it, the Lord’s words are surely of significance. Let’s go to Sister Li and listen to her fellowship.” Soon after, they went to Sister Li’s and told her their confusion. Sister Li said: “The Lord Jesus, using this metaphor, not only asks us to take forgiving others as a responsibility, but also hopes that we can put this requirement in our heart and regard it as a guide in life, thus becoming an open-minded person who loves others as himself. However, He doesn’t ask us to focus on the number of times. That is to say, if we focus on the number in forgiving others, then we’re abiding by the regulations and it’s an exercise of restraint. Such forgiveness can’t last long. Though it’s very difficult for us to meet the demand, the Lord Jesus has given us the example. He has forgiven us countless times. From this, we can see only God has the most true and real love for us. In the beginning, our ancestors lived in the Garden of Eden and God made clothes for them with animal skins; when people didn’t know how to live, God set forth the law through Moses so that they could keep the law and learn to worship God. In this way, God led this mankind to live on earth; when people failed to keep the law and lived in the danger of being condemned or put to death by the law, God became flesh in person and became a sin offering for us humans. During His work, the Lord Jesus is full of forgiveness and compassion for sinners. God’s essence is so good. Only God loves us most and can forbear and forgive us a million times, and do everything He can to save each of us. Consequently, God making such demands of us is to infuse us with what He has and is, so that we can live out the reality of the truth in God’s words to exalt, bear witness to and glorify God.

“On the contrary, since our ancestors, Adam and Eve, were corrupted, our hearts are full of evil. From the time when the first murder occurred, Cain murdered Abel, until today, we’ve been slaughtering each other for fleshy interests, and fighting with each other over fame and gain. The hearts of us humans are filled with hatred, jealousy, maliciousness and greed. It’s Satan’s vain attempt to devour all mankind with such corruption. Whereas God is love and He also requires us to live out love. Just as the Lord Jesus said: ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like to it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets’ (Matthew 22: 37-40). The Lord Jesus listed loving God and loving others as ourselves as the end of the law. The Lord Jesus’ requirements of us are just in sharp contrast to Satan’s corruption. From this we can see what positive things are, what negative things are, and what’s good and what’s evil. Now we’re the same as Satan. As long as our personal interests suffer a little damage, we hate it so much that we grind our teeth. This shows that we’ve been profoundly corrupted by Satan and that we’ve become the offspring of Satan, so the Lord Jesus made such requirements of us. This is just God’s love and salvation for us and is essential for normal humanity. Because a man with normal humanity can love God and love man. Therefore, the Lord Jesus asked us to forgive others seventy times seven. This is a truth but not a regulation. We should accept the Lord Jesus’ requirements of us from the bottom of my heart.”

Then, Sister Li fellowshiped about her experience, saying: “In the beginning, I practiced forgiving others totally relying on restraining ourselves with volition. When I had conflicts with my unbelieving husband, at first, I relied on my willpower for self-control and tried to be patient, but I could forbear no more than twice. Though from the outside, I had patience, yet I couldn’t calm down in my heart, thinking: “If I always forbear my husband, he surely will think that I’m easy to bully. Will he listen to me? Therefore, when my husband offended me again, I couldn’t help blowing up at him like an exploding bomb. From this, I saw I didn’t have a heart of forgiving others and have no love in my heart. When I repeatedly contemplated these words of the Lord Jesus, I came to understand His will: He wants us to make forgiveness of others our own responsibility and a way to follow, and to practice the words with the mental attitude of practicing the truth. Accordingly, I came before God to pray, asking Him to lead me to betray my flesh and practice the truth to satisfy Him. Subsequently, I also remembered that God’s love for me was so great. Meanwhile, through this type of environment, I saw my own corruption—I had only hatred in my heart but had no love for my family, let alone for God. Thinking of this, I came before God again, praying: ‘God, through this environment, I see I’m corrupted by Satan too deeply, full of hatred in my heart and don’t have the slightest love for others. I really need your salvation.’ When I realized I was no better than my husband and that my husband and I were both the victims of being corrupted by Satan, then I could deal with this thing properly and had the strength to practice God’s words.” Through Sister Li’s fellowship, Liu Qiang and his wife understood the true meaning of forgiving others seventy times seven. These Lord’s words are not for us to follow the rule according to the number but for us to live out the reality of forgiveness. This was indeed what they had not realized before.

Consequently, Liu Qiang nodded and said: “Yes, God requires us to forgive others a numerous amount of times. This is what we Christians should live out. Forbearing and forgiving others countless times is the normal humanity that we should live out. When encountering this little thing, I can’t tolerate or forbear my neighbor but want to take ‘an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth.’ Seeing this, I realize I really don’t have a heart of forgiveness.”

In the end, they prayed to the Lord together: “Lord, thank You for Your enlightenment and illumination. We understand the true meaning of Your words. We see that only by practicing God’s words accurately can we live out the normal humanity. From now on, we’ll practice the truth of forgiving others and pursue living out the likeness of a true Christian to glorify You. Amen!”