HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, December 30, 2024 – It begins with forgiveness – not with the getting of it but the giving of it. That’s why it’s called ‘forgive’, not ‘forget’. You get forgiveness by giving forgiveness and only by giving it. This is a great and simple mystery that even a child can understand.

We, as born-again believers, start with forgiveness, but we don’t stop there. We dare not stop there. We don’t forgive and then later forget to forgive and let the grudges build. The worst thing we can do is let the grudges build. You’ll know they’re building because the siren song of temptation will grow louder and louder even as the Word grows fainter and fainter. That’s how you’ll know there’s unforgiveness in your heart that needs to be gone right away.

Never delay forgiving. Never say “Well, he had that coming, and maybe I’ll think about forgiving him, and maybe I’ll do it tomorrow.” I know you’d never say that, but I’m just reminding you how silly it would be even to think it, let alone say it (let alone do it [let alone teach it!]). When I say “silly”, I mean foolish, and in fact I actually mean fatal, and that in the spiritual sense: Fatal in the spiritual sense. You should never harbour any unforgiveness toward anyone for any reason, because if you do, you’re in danger of losing God’s Spirit and therefore God’s protection, in which case you’ll end up like Judas Iscariot just as fast as he ended up like that.

The world claims that “big” crimes such as murder and treason are the only ones worthy of death, but we know that these pale in comparison to the harbouring of unforgiveness. Murder and treason are birthed in unforgiveness. God can only forgive us if we forgive others first. Did you know that “forgive” is another word for “love”? Forgiveness is love in action. When you choose to forgive, you’re acting like God, you’re loving like God, and you’re being perfect like God. Jesus told us we need to be perfect as the heavenly Father is perfect, just as he told us that we need to forgive before God can forgive us.

But if, against our better judgement, we let unforgiveness build in our heart, we’ll eventually get to the point where we can no longer be forgiven. We’ll have crossed the spiritual Rubicon of the unforgiveable sin, and there’s no going back. It’s a one-way trip. We’ll be stuck on the other side with Judas Iscariot and the fallen angels and everyone who’s ever had and lost God’s Spirit, ultimately to be joined by all those who never had God’s Spirit at all. This is a dreadful place to be and there’s no escaping it because there’s no forgiveness there. No matter how much you beg or plead or cry or wail, there’s no escape: There’s only damnation.

We begin with forgiveness and end with forgiveness and continue with forgiveness all the way from our beginning to our end. There is no time and no occasion when we don’t forgive. You’re reading this because you need to be reminded. We all need to be reminded every now and then, sometimes every day, sometimes all day. We begin with forgiveness, continue with forgiveness, and end with forgiveness. Everything flows from forgiveness.

And then we get to go home.