The Privilege of Letting People Hurt You
If someone offends you, how much do you make them pay for it?
I know that if I’m feeling bad about myself, or if someone else is making me jealous, I love it when they wrong me, even just the slightest unwise outburst, because I can really make them pay for it.
I can tell them how bad of a friend they are. How they have no right to treat me this way. How they always act like this. How I won’t let people walk all over me anymore.
And, the wonderful thing is, because they started it, I have a right to act in this way. And I don’t even have to apologise, because actually, THEY owe ME an apology.
This is not the way of Jesus, and it shouldn’t be our way either. He responds to our sin with grace. He was prepared to died for our acts of hatred towards him, so that we wouldn’t be made to pay for what we had done wrong.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. 11 Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.
Who have you made to pay for hurting you this week?
To whom did you show that you love yourself more than you love them?
Who are you imprisoning with your unforgiveness?
Which relationships are you destroying because you can’t release someone from their transgressions?
If you are a follower of Jesus, you have no right to make people pay for their mistakes. In doing so, you will often hurt them more than they ever hurt you.
You do have the privilege of letting people close enough to hurt you, but forgiving them freely.
“That hurt, but I forgive you”, is much better than, “That hurt, and now I’m going to hurt you!”
Don’t become bitter. Apologise to someone today for making them pay for what Jesus already died for. Choose to love as you are loved. And if it’s too hard, then ask God to change you.
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