Forgiving is for wimps
Forgiving
sinners is for wimps. Well, not exactly; some of the strong forgive
sinners after they’ve punished them severely. It isn’t that they’re
vindictive, you understand, it’s just that their sense of justice is
profoundly developed and they can’t allow sin to go unpunished. Because
this is true, it applies to every sin that’s committed against them. I
mean, if they’re going to be righteous they have to be consistently
righteous and no transgression can go unpunished and that means that anyone
who sins against them can expect nothing less from them than severe
retribution. As I’ve said, after they punish the sinner to the limit of
the law (which is the only way to show that you take sin seriously) then
they’ll forgive the sinner. Forgiving under these circumstances
doesn’t make these people wimps; their willingness to extort the maximum
amount of agony from the transgressor proves they’re not wimps.
But let’s be clear about this. Such strong people aren’t self-centred because not only will they punish those that sin against them, they’ll punish those that sin against anybody!
Just let them get wind of some sin committed and they’ll search it out
and run it to ground as if it were a rabid animal. It doesn’t matter how
long ago it happened—there’s no statute of limitations on sin and it
doesn’t matter if, back when it happened, it was dealt with
satisfactorily by those immediately involved because these strong people
need to be sure that it was dealt with to their satisfaction. [We hear of so many sinners “getting away” with stuff, don’t we?]
To
their credit, in such matters these strong people are willing to take
the risks that go with bringing justice about. Their enquiries might
generate real hurt for the innocent whose healthy but real dependence on
the sinner is undermined and their life might be made more difficult
because of it but that’s the risk these strong ones are willing to take.
The strong need to protect these dependent people by showing them that
they’re not to depend on mere humans. The strong owe that to these
dependent people who depend on the strong to do that for them.
These
non-wimps aren’t just busy-bodies or self-appointed “truth squads”;
they always have good reasons to get involved, don’t you know. They
simply can’t have sinners free to roam around without being confronted
and exposed if they judge it’s necessary.
But
the strong people make sure that they don’t overreact. I mean they
wouldn’t take out an ad in the local newspapers or send bulletins all
over the place openly talking about the sin. They're mostly careful to
see to it that they tell only their husbands and wives and friends; oh,
yes, and of course, any others who are in a place of responsibility and
who might need to know because they might
want to close a door or two against the transgressor. [You can’t have
sinners welcomed to your gathering or home—that can injure your
reputation and maybe even your ministry if you have one.]
I
need to repeat that these strong people aren’t “busybody” types. The
proof of that is they don’t act like tireless private detectives and
lawyers, as if they were building an ironclad case against the
sinner—making sure they have every little detail. Not at all, they’re
perfectly satisfied with the fact that “it” happened. It doesn’t really
matter what the “it” was precisely or the level of engagement of the
sinner in “it” or if others were involved and if so how, or what the
circumstances were that were the matrix of the trespass. Such issues
don’t matter because something
was done and there’s no need to drag out all the details; it’s best
just to leave “it” to the imagination. Some of the strong, in their
wisdom, think it might even be wise to think the worst because that way
when you do end up forgiving it’ll be the worst case scenario that
you’ve dealt with. I mean, how would you feel if you fully punished and
then forgave what you thought was X and later had reason to believe it was X+?
Heaven forbid!
[To be continued, perhaps, God enabling]