Magpasensiya kayo sa isa’t isa at magpatawad kayo kung may hinanakit kayo kaninuman. Magpatawad kayo gaya ng pagpapatawad sa inyo ng Panginoon. At higit sa lahat, magmahalan kayo, sapagkat ang pag-ibig ang buklod ng ganap na pagkakaisa. Paghariin ninyo sa inyong puso ang kapayapang kaloob ni Cristo …

Mga Taga-Colosas 3:13–15

Have you been deeply hurt by what others have done to you? Maybe you’ve been betrayed by people close to you or lies were told about you that damaged your reputation. O kaya’y galit sa iyo ang in-laws mo dahil sa simula pa lang ay hindi ka nila type! Or perhaps you have been physically or verbally abused. Iba’t Ibang paraan with varying degrees pero all of us have experienced being hurt. 

How do you deal with the person who hurt you? Palaban ka ba or do you just avoid the person and the issue? Do you take revenge by spreading bad things about that person? Or do you try to forgive as God commands? Kaya lang after a few days, you remember the offense, get mad and hurt all over again. Mahirap magpatawad especially when we rely on our own strength. But with God’s help, kakayanin natin. It is easier to forgive by focusing on how much we have been forgiven.

This is best illustrated in the story of the wicked servant in Matthew 18:23–35 (ESV), where the servant received mercy from the master after he begged forgiveness for all his debts. But when a debtor of this same servant could not pay him, he refused to show mercy and put him in prison. When the master learned about this, he summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should you not have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?”  

In the same way, we forgive because the Lord Jesus paid a high price — His death on the Cross — for the forgiveness of our sins and that of our enemies’. In case the offense done to you is grave, don’t fret because the time will come when each of us will give an account of himself to God (Romans 14:12).