for·give·ness [fer-giv-nis]:

How we define a word is often how we express its meaning in our lives. If I define love as a verb, as something completely selfless, devoting to serving and loving another, then I will love this way. However, if I use a softer definition, I might be inclined to say something like, "I love Dr Pepper." Now that is not so say that I selflessly devote myself to and serve Dr Pepper, but it's all in how I define the word. The same is true with another big word, big in meaning that is, and that's forgiveness. To grasp society's definition of the word, I looked up the definition on urbandictionary.com. It's an online dictionary for slang words with today's definitions provided by its users. Urban Dictionary has 6 definitions for Forgiveness one of which caught me by surprise at first...

"Allowing someone to think they are off the hook so you can toss their sins in their face over and over again later on."

...But then I realized, that is how we exercise forgiveness most of time, so I guess the definition isn't that far fetched. The good news is that we have another source for a definition of forgiveness. Matthew 18: 21-35 depicts a true definition of forgiveness. In this parable there are two slaves who both owe a debt. One debt is large and impossible to pay back. The master of this slave could have chosen to have the debtor thrown in prison, or his family could have been sold into slavery to help pay off the debt. It was hoped in those times that the debtor, while in prison, would sell off his land and possessions or that his relatives would pay the debt. If not, the debtor could remain in prison for life. But the master of this slave chooses to completely release the slave of his debt and to forgive him. Now in the Matthew 18 account, this same slave has a fellow slave who owes him a small debt, equal to about $100 dollars. Having received forgiveness of his debt, you would expect that he would in turn forgive his fellow man of his debt, right? Well, that's not how this story ends. This slave chooses to have his fellow man imprisoned and tortured for the small debt that he owed.

So let's bring this home. We are the first slave in this parable. We had a debt to God that we were not capable of paying back. God chose to release us of this debt and to forgive us through the death and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ. So we, as the first slave, having received this immeasurable forgiveness have a choice in how we dispense it, in how we define it and ultimately, how we live it out in our daily lives. We all have those who have wronged us and in that, a debt has been created. Remember, it's not about how we feel, forgiveness is not about emotion. If we are to look at the greatest example of forgiveness, Jesus with his arms stretched out, taking his last breaths, choosing to die so that we might be forgiven, then we can't expect forgiveness to be a nonchalant word that we flippantly throw around. It's a choice, and sometimes it's painful. It doesn't say that the wrong that was done is okay, on the contrary, forgiveness says, "What you did was wrong, but I'm not going to hold it against you." Will we choose to imprison and torture others or will we look to the example of forgiveness in our own lives and choose to release others of their debts as well?

Just some food for thought, I've been chewing on it all week.