If To Forgive Is To Love, How Deep Is Your Love?

indignation, cussing, contempt, anger

Yes, I know.  The question, “How deep is your love?”,  sounds as if it should be a 1977 song by the Brothers Gibb, but there is another aspect I would like to explore.

A Metaphor

A thousand or so years ago when I was involved in reliability predictions for various weapon and/or commercial systems, failures were examined in what was essentially two significantly different methods.  What had been described as the American system of failure analysis was typically defined as being an inch deep, but a mile wide.  Meaning that if a particular integrated circuit was found to be at fault, all chips of that date lot code, that manufacturer, or some other characterization, were to be examined, replaced, deleted, or whatever course of action seemed appropriate.  The Japanese methodology involved going an inch wide, but a mile deep.  This methodology involved finding the cause of the failure and then asking the next 5 or so questions, get an answer to those and ask the next 5 questions and so on.

The Japanese method would not stop looking for an assignable cause until the analysis finally revealed the name of the middle child of the stepson of the brother-in-law of the person who mined the silicon from which the wafer used in the construction of the failed piece had been made.  Clearly, that is not completely true, but it is essentially accurate, the Japanese method was an inch wide but a mile deep.

Keep asking, keep searching until there was nothing else to be known about the issue.

What’s The Point?

The point is that there may always be more to discover, rather than reacting to the surface item or issue.  As an example, let us consider for a moment the Lord’s prayer.  At first blush, we are told that we will be forgiven as we forgive.  But, let’s take a slightly deeper view of that.

When I pray the Lord’s prayer, I see it as four elements at play simultaneously. Each of these affects a different level of forgiveness, and each involves another aspect.

When I ask for forgiveness, the first thing for which I ask for forgiveness is for the sins that I may have committed against the Trinity.  The next area is to ask for forgiveness of the sins I have committed I may have committed against others.

The last two areas of forgiveness are for the sins of others.  I ask for the forgiveness of the sins of those who believe they have injured me in any aspect of my life, financially, reputation, etc.  The last area is to ask for forgiveness for those people whom I believe have injured me, whether those injuries are even known or perceived by the others involved.

 Perception Not Reality

Correct.  The last area is to ask forgiveness for those people whom I believe have injured me, and that approach, I believe, has the effect of reducing or preventing resentment, and dissipates anger.

It is one thing to pray for the forgiveness of the then young woman who, while employed as a babysitter for our children, invited two of her friends into the house where they stole my coin collection, prescription drugs and then brandished knives and chased each other around the house in the presence of our three young daughters.

It is a measure of forgiveness to ask that the fellow who cut and pasted a memo of mine and took authorship of it and was rewarded for it, unbeknownst to me, had gotten promoted and received recognition as a result.  I discovered this theft when he later was named my boss.

My request for forgiveness goes well beyond these cases to those people who may not realize, or even care, that I have been hurt in any way.  I do not have to know their names, or even recall the exact details of the event.  All I am doing is asking that those people whom I have ever felt had hurt be receive forgiveness for their actions.

Forgive Beyond the Lord’s Prayer

This approach of reaching out to forgive appears in several areas of Scripture.  Colossians 3:13 “..bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if one has a grievance against another; as the Lord has forgiven you, so must you also do.” Ephesians 4:32 “[And] be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another as God has forgiven you in Christ”.  There are several other verses that can be used as examples in both the Old and New Testaments. 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 “Whomever you forgive anything, so do I. For indeed what I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for you in the presence of Christ, 11so that we might not be taken advantage of by Satan, for we are not unaware of his purposes.”

We were commanded by Christ to forgive, not once or twice but at least 490 times ( seventy times seven ), which is another way of saying without counting how often. When in doubt, forgive.

Yes, it is far easier to say it that to do it and mean it.  However, it can be done, learned and practiced.  The rewards are plentiful. When you forgive others, you are freed from the distress and mental anguish of having to carry that around with out.  Yes, of course, you may not wish to hire that particular babysitter again, but you need not carry any anger with you for the next few dozen years.

Try it, say anything such as, “Father, Lord, and Spirit, please forgive those people whom I believe have hurt me.”

To forgive is to love, how deep is your love?

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Pinterest

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.