Clear Relationships
What’s fair got to do with it?
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…bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if someone happens to have a complaint against anyone else. Just as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also forgive others.
Colossians 3:13 (NET)
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I once had a pastor describe bitterness as “drinking poison and hoping the other person gets sick.”
When you put it that way, it sounds pretty ludicrous.
Yet it’s so easy to feel resentment & unforgiveness & bitterness to those who have wronged us. After all, if the world was fair, shouldn’t they fix it?
I’m actually glad the world is not fair.
Why?
Because fair means that all of my sin is punished through the destruction of hell, and not the unfair work of Christ on the cross. God’s grace is not fair … and that’s wonderful news!
Jesus had some parables that spoke into the topic of forgiveness.
Especially the man who owed his master a debt of money that couldn’t possibly ever be repaid. Yet when the servant was forgiven the whole debt, he demanded complete restitution from his other debtors.
How absurd.
If we are forgiven such an impossible debt, we ought to forgive others.
It’s not a hard concept to grasp … but it is hard to put into practice.
It may be a good idea to take a second and ask the Lord if there is someone who you need to forgive. If there is, I bet they come into mind immediately. And then I bet — if you’re anything like me — you’ll try and justify why that’s not actually the case.
Probably a bad idea.
Better to trust the Holy Spirit and ask Him for help forgiving those who have wronged you.
— Ricky Ketchum
Copyright © 2025 by Ricky Ketchum. All rights reserved. Unauthorized duplication prohibited.
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