Mat 5:6-12 “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied. (7) “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy. (8) “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. (9) “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (10) “Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (11) “Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. (12) Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.

Here, the Lord Jesus gives us a description of those who are blessed. Those who are truly His people and who have great reward in heaven. They are peacemakers and they are merciful. But they also hunger and thirst for righteousness. When they strive for peace and when they show mercy, their actions do not contradict their desire for what is right. In fact, they are courageous in their stance for righteousness. So much so that they are persecuted by the wicked.

Now, with that background, what do you think of someone who comes up to you and says:

You need to forgive Joe or Sally or….whoever

I have heard this line many times, and no doubt so have most all of you. And I want to tell you – every single time I have heard it from someone, that person has turned out to be either an exceedingly naive person ignorant of the real truths of Scripture, or an out and out wicked reviler parading as a Christian. Every time. Without fail.

Now think this through carefully. You are a Christian. You are indwelt by the Holy Spirit. Here are your qualities as a new creation in Christ:

Gal 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, (23) gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.

If you need to forgive someone, do you really think that you are going to need to be told by another person? When forgiveness is right, do you not see that the Spirit of Christ in us will lead us to that forgiveness? And when the kind of “forgiveness” being laid upon us is NOT right, do you not see that the Spirit in us will move us to understand that? Is this not how Christ leads His people? By His Spirit in them?

Therefore, I suggest to you that whenever some “brother” comes up to you and starts telling you that you need to “forgive” someone (how much of this is laid upon us by “biblical counseling”?), but in fact you have not sensed any desire of your own to “forgive” as this person intends you to (ie, reconcile with a wicked person, not require that the evil one suffer consequences, etc), immediately you can know that the person is just plain guilting you with a load of false guilt.

See it? Understand?

Yes, we are required by the Lord to forgive even our enemies. But they are still our enemies! So the sense in which He would have us forgive them is not to pretend that we are buddies again even when the person has not repented. No. He means that we don’t seek personal vengeance upon them. And if we see them injured along the road we are not going to pass them by without helping them.

But this is not what that “fine saintly Christian sister” means when she comes up to you and says, “you need to forgive your abusive husband.” No. What she means is that you must listen to her, because she is speaking for the Lord, and HE through her is telling you that you need to reconcile/forget/give hugs, etc. But why would the Lord speak to you through such a person? Will you not know by the leading of His Spirit in you what to do? What “forgiveness” in this case looks like? That hungering for justice and righteousness is proper?

So don’t listen to these people who actually, it could be argued, are false prophets claiming the Lord has sent them with His message when He has not. “You need to forgive…..”. Oh, really? That’s quite interesting because that is not what the Lord is telling me, and I think that if He wants me to know something, He is going to let me know directly by His Spirit and His Word.