Marketplace Reflections (13)

Forgiveness

The standard for Christians in all things is Jesus Christ and His Word. This includes forgiving others as well as asking for forgiveness when we do things we ought not to do. Paul writes (Ephesians 4:32), “And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ also forgave you.” We are to forgive just as we have been forgiven.

Considering how much time we spend at work, and considering how stressful work can be, and taking into account that most of us work with people -  coworkers, vendors, customers, and others - the likelihood that at some point someone is going to do something they shouldn’t do is pretty high. The likelihood that we ourselves are going to do something we shouldn’t do is also pretty high; I’m not talking about stealing or lying - though those things are included - I’m talking about what happens when human beings keep bumping up against one another in a fast-paced and closed environment, sooner or later we are going to say something we shouldn’t say in a way we shouldn’t say it, or do something without considering its effect on others, or just be plain selfish in our words and actions. What do we do when we do something wrong? What do we do when others do something wrong to us?

While the context of the above verse in Ephesians is the Body of Christ, in Matthew 6:14 Jesus says, “For if you forgive others their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others, neither will your Father forgive your transgressions.” So we are not only to practice forgiveness within the church, but we are to practice it toward all humanity. Forgiveness is to be a way of life for the follower of Jesus Christ, including life in the workplace.

Of course this is complex and the dynamics can be many-layered, but what better environment to learn the Way of Jesus? After all, this is about learning to live by His life and not our own, this is about considering ourselves dead to sin and alive to God, this is about being on the Potter’s wheel and the Holy Spirit transforming us into the image of Jesus Christ. Unless we are looking to Jesus, the Author and Perfecter of our faith, it isn’t likely we will progress far with forgiveness as a way of life. We can focus on ourselves, we can focus on others, or we can focus on Jesus and His Word. In one sense this is an issue of obedience, and if we can’t get beyond that then at the very least we must confront the command of Christ to forgive, and we must reckon with the fact that if we choose not to forgive that we then choose to sin - we do not get a pass because of circumstances. This is not to say that there aren’t times when this is a process, we are not robots and God doesn’t want us to pretend, but He does call us to exercise our will by His enabling grace and decide to forgive, whether we feel like it or not.

This is also not to say that others are not held accountable, nor is it to say that we become people without definition and the equivalent of floor mats; and it most certainly does not mean that “what you did is okay, please do it again.” However, if we are followers of Jesus Christ then we belong to Him, we are His property if you will - this is why Paul styled himself a slave belonging to Jesus Christ. Many things in life become straightforward when the issue of identity is settled, if our identity is in Christ then our obedience must be in Christ, we are not our own, we are bought with a price - the blood of the Lamb.

Jesus prayed on the Cross, “Father forgive them, for they don’t know what they do.” Sometimes people know just what they are doing and sometimes they don’t. This is true of my own life, when I look back and see things I’ve done it can be as if I were looking at someone else’s life. Even though God has forgiven me of past sin, I still live with the memory and consequences - this is my journey, yours may be different. My point is that when others do wrong to us that they may have no idea what they are doing. I think even when others are deliberate and hurtful and aware of their actions, that in one sense they still don’t know because they have been blinded by the god of this age (2 Corinthians 4:3 - 4; Ephesians 4:17 - 19). To be sure we are all accountable to God, and our habits and disciplines and ways of life reinforce the direction we are going - we are either cultivating life and light or we are cultivating death and darkness; but only God can judge righteously, only God knows the heart and soul and mind of a man or woman. There is a particular freedom in entrusting ourselves and others to God.

We ought to be afraid not to forgive. We ought to fear unforgiveness the way we might fear ingesting poison; if we wouldn’t knowingly ingest poison, if we wouldn’t use poison to flavor our coffee or tea, why would we flavor our lives with unforgiveness? Unforgiveness is an invasive weed whose roots wind their way deep into our souls, sucking the life out of us and poisoning our hearts and minds, influencing our actions, and affecting those around us. Once the tentacles of unforgiveness twist their way around and into our soul it is difficult to extract them, removing invasive weeds can be sorrowful work. How much better to learn the way of Christ, the way of forgiveness, and to allow the Holy Spirit to train us to forgive quickly - to learn forgiveness as a way of life.

A workplace can be poisoned with unforgiveness, it can be a toxic environment. The followers of Christ are called to show the workplace a better way.

To be continued...