The Unforgiving Servant

by: Lou Lotz

Forgiven by his master of a million-dollar debt, the ungrateful servant promptly goes out and has a fellow servant thrown in jail because of a ten-dollar IOU. The lesson couldn’t be clearer: If God is willing to forgive you, then how dare you withhold your forgiveness from others?

So why aren’t more Christians known for their ability to forgive? Why do we keep breaking God’s heart and hurting ourselves by being unforgiving? One reason is that having an enemy we believe is wrong can make us feel right. Refusing to forgive people who hurt us is how we punish them. But there is a terrible side effect: we become bitter, angry, and resentful. Refusing to forgive is a boomerang that has a sinister way of circling back at us. We become the victims of our own bitterness.

That’s why losing an enemy can be as upsetting as losing a friend. When you lose your enemy, you lose the adrenaline rush of anger. Gone is the satisfaction of self-righteousness and the pleasure of victimhood.

When we refuse to forgive we lose the opportunity to be free of the resentment that sucks the sweetness out of life and causes God such sorrow. “Be kind to one another,” says Ephesians, “tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (4:32).