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Editor’s note: This is the seventh installment of a series on the Lord’s Prayer, line by line. Rev. Campbell Markham is a Presbyterian minister in Perth, Australia.
“As we forgive our debtors.” — Matthew 6:12 (NASB 1977)
In an article on the connection between forgiveness and health, Dr. Karen Swartz from The Johns Hopkins Hospital states, “There is an enormous physical burden to being hurt and disappointed.” The article goes on to detail the related effects:
Chronic anger puts you into a fight-or-flight mode, which results in numerous changes in heart rate, blood pressure and immune response [which] increase the risk of depression, heart disease and diabetes. Forgiveness, however, calms stress levels, leading to improved health.
While unforgiveness is bad for our health, it is catastrophic for our eternal souls.
The fifth petition of the Lord’s Prayer is, “Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matt. 6:12).
Jesus is emphatic about the eternal consequences of not forgiving others.
Note that this is the only petition that Jesus reinforces with a comment. And note how emphatic his comment is. This shows the prayer’s difficulty, and the eternal consequences, of not doing what we say we do in this petition:
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” (Matt. 6:14-15)
It’s important to grasp what forgiving someone who has wronged us is—and is not:
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Forgiveness is not pretending that the person never did the wrong. Wrongs change relationships.
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Forgiveness is not necessarily lifting the punishment for the wrong, if punishment is required.
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Forgiveness is not the same as reconciliation. Without acknowledgement of wrong, full reconciliation is impossible.
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Forgiveness wants punishment lifted and reconciliation, but it may be extended with or without these things.
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Forgiveness is giving up personal retribution. It wants the person who wronged us to find God’s forgiveness.
In a word, forgiveness wants the best for the person who wronged us.
The Lord’s Prayer goes to the heart of what it means to be a Christian.
Jesus’ prayer demands that we examine ourselves. Do we want the best for those who have wronged us? If we do not, we must give up any hope that God has forgiven us.
Jesus’ prayer goes to the heart of what it means to be a Christian. The Christian looks first to their own wickedness and sees and owns its foul depth and breadth. The Christian knows that they deserve nothing from God but hell. And we thank Jesus for taking our hell upon himself.
Then, knowing the immense crimes that God has forgiven us, and knowing that although we deserve his worst he has given us his best, we cannot help but extend the same to others.
The forgiven cannot help forgiving.
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Campbell Markham has been a pastor in the Australian Presbyterian Church for over twenty-two years and lives in Perth, Western Australia. He blogs at Campbell Markham: Thoughts and Letters.
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