As with any other sin, murder goes back to pretty much the beginning of humanity when Adam and Eve's son Cain murdered his brother Abel simply because God favored Ables offering to him which was of an offering of fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock over Cain's own offering of the fruits of the soil.
This made Cain very angry with his brother. He became so much so that he invited Abel to go him to go to a field whereas he attacked and killed his own brother.
And so became the first premeditated murderer of all time. Genesis 4:4-.
But wait. That isn't most of us. We have not gone out and murdered anyone. Have we. Or let's think that again. Have we?
Jesus said this in Mathew 5:21-24. You have heard it said to those of old, "You shall not murder and whosoever murders will be liable to judgment. But I say whosoever hates his brother is liable to judgment, whoever insults his brother is liable to judgment and whosoever says 'You fool' will be liable to hell fire.' So if you are offering your gift at the altar and you remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there and go be reconciled with your brother and then return to offer your gift.
Ah yeah, but really, is that really the same as murdering my brother if I don't forgive him? Well, consider what 1 John 3: 15 has to say.
Everyone that hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him.
Ah, but I might have a reason to hate my brother. He has hurt me so badly that I just cannot forgive him.
When that happens though, bitterness starts to build up in our hearts. Maybe we don't go out and actually kill him, but it is murder of the heart towards him and if we don't forgive him, we have created the sin of murder as if we had. Therefore, we are libel to the same judgment as in 1 John 3:15.
I have had to learn forgiveness in my own life over the years. Starting out with my own mother, and even through to the eventual illness and then the eventual death of my father. During his illness, someone had taken so advantage of him to try and manipulate him, that was so despicable to me that it could have made me so bitter to them that I could have hated them, and never spoke to them again. But you know, my dad forgave them before he passed and I knew that if he could forgive them at such at time when he knew his time on this earth was almost over, how could I not forgive them. And I have since spoken to them, and even visited them in their homes.
They have never offered apologies. And though that would be nice, to me it was not necessary for me to forgive them. We have never spoken about what happened those years ago at that time. I do not know where they stand on what they did. That is between them and God to figure out. But I do know where I stand with him because I chose to forgive and not hold any bitterness in my heart.
Forgiveness is never easy. And it is a learning process. Sometimes it takes time to forgive someone for something they have done that has been so hurtful that all you want to do is retaliate. We see stories of it or even can read about it all the time on social platforms as Facebook, of people that are so bitter against someone that they blast them over and over for all to see.
And what good does that really do them? It just makes them angrier and angrier and they commit murder in their hearts that really can and does sometimes lead eventually to the real thing.
Forgiving them is really not so much about that person, but it is about ourselves. Letting the anger and bitterness go can be health to ourselves. Not only physical but mentally and spiritually as well.
Proverbs 17:22 says: A joyful heart is a good medicine but a broken spirit drys up our bones. Not that we have to do what I did and still have a relationship with them even to a small degree, or even to continue to hurt us. The bible does say to reconcile with them. But what if we can't because they won't let us? Someone that wants nothing to do with us? Or what if it is someone that truly has done something evil against us, that is dangerous to go and to be around?
If it is better to just stay away from that person and not have a relationship with them so that we can forgive them, so be it. The important thing isn't about them really. It is about getting to the place that we can do it and not have it continually eating up our health and our hearts. We do not need their apologies to go on with what God calls us to do. And that is what is important for us. Because after all, it is not up to us to pronounce judgment on others. That is God's job. And I for one, am thankful it is not mine.
Hello Friends. I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And now many of us begin the Christmas Season with our plans of shopping, and decorating and all the other things we will do in the days to come. On the way home from the dinner we went to yesterday, we saw Christmas lights adorning the outsides of some homes already and how pretty they looked.
As you begin the season with all those plans you have, don't forget that quote we see or hear from time to time, Jesus is the Reason for the Season. Because that is what it is really all about. Not the decorations and gifts. But if not for the baby in the manager that grew up to save us from our sin, there really would be no reason for celebration.
Thanks for coming by. Please stop back tomorrow for part 2 of Hands That Shed Innocent Blood.
God bless!
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