Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. ~ Luke 6:37
你 们 要 饶 恕 人 ， 就 必 蒙 饶 恕 （ 饶 恕 ： 原 文 作 释 放 ） ~ 路 加 福 音 6:37
The boy and girl in the picture aren’t looking at each other. Uh oh. They look angry. Maybe one of them said something mean to the other one, or maybe they both did. Or maybe they’re fighting over something else.
That happens. When someone hurts us, our first instinct is to do something hurtful back to the person who hurt us. The problem is, then they will do something else mean, and then we will, and it will get worse and worse.
In this verse, Jesus tells us how to live in peace with people who hurt us. He says we should forgive them. That doesn’t mean we have to say what they did was okay, because probably it wasn’t. It means that we choose not to hurt them back. It means we treat them with kindness even though they were mean to us.
Jesus did this when he forgave the people who nailed him onto a wooden cross to die. Then after he was alive again, he kindly invited everyone, including them, to come and be part of God’s kingdom with him.
In today’s verse, Jesus says that if we forgive other people, we will be forgiven for the hurting we do. The person we hurt might or might not forgive us back. It depends on whether they do what Jesus says. But Jesus promised that God will forgive us. And then we will have peace in our hearts, and the kingdom of God will be a little bit stronger.
Our Father, it’s hard to forgive people who hurt us. But we want to be like Jesus. Help us forgive them and be kind to them, even though it’s hard. And please also forgive us for the unkind things we do. Thank you. Amen.
Argyle Road Baptist Church 