Michael McKinney
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Unconditional Forgiveness
The idea of debt describes our relationships much of the time. In literature and speech, we frequently use metaphors that relate to this idea of debt, like, “You owe me” and “I want to get even with that person,” because a debt creates an imbalance.
If I promise you, I owe you. If you promise me, you owe me. If I hurt you, I owe you. If you hurt me, you owe me. These debts are very real to us and must be paid.
The only way this goes away is if someone pays the debt or we cancel the debt; we forgive the debt. Forgiveness isn’t something we typically like to do. In all fairness, we want the debt to be paid.
This is an issue we feel very strongly about and we can get quite emotional over it. While we know we should forgive, our sense of justice necessitates that there must be a limit to it; there must be conditions to it. I mean, what do you do when someone hurts you over and over and over again? At some point, they have to pay. Right? They have to know they are wrong and they hurt us. That’s only fair. We want to be even with or we want to get even with the person that owes us. There is a debt involved. What do we do?
What does the Bible say about forgiveness?
