“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. "And do not judge and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned." Luke 6:36-37

To be unforgiving is to retain the debts of others in ones’ life. It is not merely a jerk of emotion that we feel; it is also part of the curse of sin that was released when Adam fell. It is a load that can burden us other than what the Lord wants to give to us. This is what the Lord says,

“Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.  For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” Matthew 11:29-30

Jesus tells us that we can only find rest when we give to Him all our yokes. He desires that we carry what He wants us to carry only-light! Indeed this can be a light load but more than that His burden is really light, because He carried the rest for us. Yokes are wooden implements designed to be placed on necks of ox or carabaos. These yokes are used to attaching iron harrows or a wooden plow.

The Lord pictures us to be full of joke when we do not come to Him and have Him check us up. When one does not learn to forgive others, it is essentially a pride that says we are better than the other fellow who has hurt us. Once it piles up because of offenses, it grows to become bitterness and rage. The apostle Paul wrote that we should never give place of foothold for the devil (Eph 4:27). Although the preceding verse speaks about anger, most offenses come from uncontrolled anger which produces skirmishes and reviling that hurts others.

One time, I was so angered against a certain kinswoman who had violated my so called rules of conduct. I did not open up my mouth for so long as I could towards her. Then, unable to hold it any longer, I went to a church at UP Diliman and there I just prayed. I said, I can’t tolerate any longer. The moment I prayed to God I felt my heart opened up and my burden lightened. I then heard Him speak “overcome evil with good” (Rom 12:17). Sometimes we think anger or harboring bitterness to someone is a way to punish the other person. I thought the same before. I thought by harboring bitterness to my wife, I can still be very good towards her and towards others. But that was a lie. An unforgiving spirit poisons others. There was an instance when my wife and I got into a small quarrel. I thought she said something offensive to me. Being so tired coming from work then, I also retorted back. What started to be a small quarrel turned into a very bad situation. She walked out in front of me and clammed in. Unfazed by her reactions, I simply ignored her. All of these instances show that repaying evil for evil will not solve a problem. The Word of God already says: “Recompense to no man evil for evil” (Rom 12:17).

When we tolerate unforgiveness, it grows to such an extent that it affects even our bodies. We become easily annoyed and irritated even with little provocations. In this world we must learn how to deal with anger, bitterness, rage and unforgiveness if we want to be counted as overcomers. This is a daily fight and not just a one- time event. In the workplace we can encounter other hurting employees harboring bitterness because she has not forgiven the offenses done on her by another. I could hear women taking factions because another of their group has been hurt accidentally by another person. Unforgiveness affects everyone. It can even turn individuals to an unrighteous team of bitter employees, so we can find pickets, rallies or simply factions within departments. When this grows to a larger scale, we find nations embittered against each other. Tribes in my province fight for prestige and honor but at the same time, they still carry with them the law of retaliation more than the law of the land. They take life for life, blood for blood. There is no concept for forgiveness and only weak institutions of peace and order.

Conflicts and wars

One of the prophecies given by the Lord when He was asked by the disciples how to recognize end time events include: “nation shall rise against nation” (Luke 21:10). The rendition of the New Living Translation says: “Nations and Kingdoms will proclaim war against each other.” Why are there wars and conflicts? James gives us a simple answer that even the psychologists and historians would agree to, “What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them.

Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it” (James 4:1-2). It is a common occurrence today to hear of various conflicts around the world from war on terror to genocide. When one reflects on the words of Jesus, it is apparent that these things have been fulfilled. Man since the beginning is more apt than animals to destroying each other. Lions are territorial by nature and they often mark and guard their own territories. They keep watch on it well. But we do not find a bunch of lions warring against each other in nature.

The pack decides which will be accepted in the pride. Or if it is another alpha lion, then a battle ensues between the two. In the world, men fight each other to death. Powerful countries slaughter each other until one is subdued and an agreement is reached. Many of the present pockets of conflicts will escalate to larger scales if nations do not learn to forgive and tolerate each other. It is inevitable but we can lessen the impact, we can be His instruments of peace. James clearly states that these evil wars are manifestations of a deeper neurosis that is inside us. This includes the whole army of evil desires that are at war within us, within everyone who have not connected themselves to God. The result is people who try to scheme or plan things to the detriment of others. Since no one is willing to be defrauded, the hurting will then rise up and bring others with him to try to overcome and humiliate the other party. But the end result of it will be death. Nobody wins in wars or conflicts except the enemy.

Napoleon’s Pride

There was war between Russia and France during Napoleon’s day. Napoleon had almost conquered the whole of Europe but thinking he needs to punish and humiliate the Russians for offending him cost his whole army. He was hungry for more prestige and he has been waging war against the Russian fighters for months and they have not surrendered to his siege. Without thinking well, he decided at all cost to bring in his best fighters against the Russians who were now in guerilla warfare as their comrades were reduced in number and supplies.

But knowing well the terrain the Russian Generals, Mikhail Barclay de Tolly and Pyotr Ivanovich Bagration fought well and stood their grounds in Moscow so that by August 18, 1812 Napoleon commenced his retreat back to France losing more than 500,000 men. Men react when their egos or prides have been hurt by other people, whether directly or indirectly. Instead of forgiving, people rationalize that it was done in disregard to them. Such prideful thinking begets mistrust from other people as well as hatred.

Harboring unforgiveness does not just bring about bitterness but can have a lethal effect in our lives. This is when hatred and unforgiveness join together to spur wars and conflicts between brothers and nations. Cain and Abel were just two brothers on earth when one of them could not get over that his younger brother would be more accepted by the Lord than him.

Germany’s humiliation and rise to power

It was a turbulent decade for the Germans when Hitler took over the reins of power. He was however very strong and inspiring in casting vision and hope to his people so that he rose up in ranks quickly. He joined the Socialist Party and quickly threw the blame of economic recession to the Jews. To a country which had just lost so many soldiers during the last war and whose economy has been suffering from chronic unemployment, Hitler’s message of hope and rising up of Germany was quickly taken up as a dosage for the ailing man. It could be that humiliation of the Germans during the last great war have impacted Hitler’s frame so much that he was determined like a flint in making Germany rise up again.

When campaigning for his party and election as chancellor, he asked the people to give him a chance, to make Germany once more a great nation. He indeed delivered his promises to the masses in a sort of miraculous survival during the period of the Great Depression. Hitler aroused the nationalist sentiment of the Germans because of the shocking war reparations that the Treaty of Versailles approved by the Allies, one of which was the requirement to pay the sum of 33bln dollars at the time Germany was a country which has an inflation rate of more than 50%. Such huge sum did not only shock the whole nation but drove them to look for hope somewhere and to put the blame on the Weimar Republic for selling their country to the Allies. Hitler used the opportunity and delivered hope to the public with his deliberate attempts to take leadership of the whole nation. When people have lost confidence on their present government, the only thing they look for is any hope they can hold on to. Hitler promised them a new greatness and the rise of the German nation. He solidified his position by clever machinations with the industrialists and the army until he gained complete power to do his main aim-regain the lost territories of Germany and bring vengeance to its enemies.

The harsh terms on Germany and the decadent period of the 1930s brought a combination that ultimately ushered Europe into another stage of war. Nations which were wounded by conflicts with each other become an open target for the spirit of unforgiveness and hatred which can spew out all degrees of evil on others. Time did not heal the crushing defeat of Germany. Rather, it was used to flame the war that would come again. Unhealed wounds will remain as open wounds if not applied with the balm of healing.

It can be concealed for a long time but it is still an open wound that can become infected. In the natural sea, seeds of dinoflagellate cysts can remain embedded on the seabed for a long time and when conditions are ripe, they will sprout and bloom covering a massive area that can be the size of the whole of Britain. This can cause suffocation to other animals such as those which could not swim away from the bloom area because these bloom forming algae when they die will also decay and cause a stench. In the same manner unhealed differences and unforgiveness can release death and destruction. God called us to be missionaries of peace and to be an extension of His life on earth saying, “Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18).