Matthew 5: 43-45, Acts 9: 10-19

Philip Morris advocates forgiveness

Philip Morris

Can you ever think of a time when you really wanted to get your own back on someone? We have all heard the saying 'revenge is sweet'. At some point in our lives most of us have said it. There are many reasons why someone might want to get their own back. Some of these include:

• To teach a lesson to the person who caused pain


• To punish people who cheat and break rules


• To settle a score


• To make whoever has caused you to suffer, feel your pain

But what does Jesus say about the matter? As usual his response is somewhat different to ours:

'You have heard that it was said, "Love your neighbour and hate your enemy". But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven.' Matthew 5: 43-45

God wants us to love our enemies because it's a supernatural thing to do. Because anyone can love people that they like, but it takes someone a bit special to love people that they don't like. God can use you to be part of the journey that draws people to him, even if it is someone who has hurt you.

Have a look at the life of the apostle Paul; someone who attacked Christians and yet God still used him as an amazing preacher and great man of God. He turned his back on all the bad things that he had done in his life and instead lived for Jesus. He became a man who was so influential that many people came to have faith because of the way God used him to share the message that Jesus Christ is love.

In Acts 9, Saul receives prayer and God says, "This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel"

Enemies are those who will oppose us, belittle us, make fun of us and jeer at our beliefs. Sometimes they can even be people who criticise us for having 'too much religion', or 'being too involved', or 'giving too much to the church'.

Eva Moses Kor was a survivor from the Holocaust. She remembers the months she spent in Auschwitz as a child; the medical experiments she underwent and the loss of most of her family. She hasn't forgotten, but she has forgiven.

Kor, now 76, sparked controversy among other Holocaust survivors and the Jewish community in 1995 when, on the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, she decided to forgive the unforgivable - the Nazi genocide of the Jews.

She says, "Forgiveness is an act of personal self-healing available to every human being who is hurting and who wants to get rid of their pain. It's also self-empowering. What makes a person a victim? The moment where a person's power to rule our own life is taken away. I claim that the power to forgive restores that. My way of forgiving has zero to do with the perpetrator. The victim remains a victim as long as the perpetrator has power over the victim's life. If the Nazis will not ask for forgiveness, or if they are dead, should I remain a victim for the rest of my life?"

By her line of thinking, forgiveness might have prevented the Holocaust in the first place.

"Take, as an example, Adolf Hitler. Was he a happy person? No. Was he an angry person? Yes. Did Adolf Hitler consider himself a victim? Yes," she says. "And therefore he lashed out and got even and was responsible for the deaths of millions. What would have happened to that same Adolf Hitler if we would have had something in practice such as, 'Forgive your worst enemy?'"

Pray for your enemies and forgive those who have wronged you. When Jesus was on the cross he prayed for his enemies and said forgive them for they do not know what they do. Let's take the same attitude and see God change lives for good.