The Pardon of Prayer 2

Christians are characterized as those who forgive. In Matthew 5:43, we find that the traditional Jewish rabbis taught, "Thou shalt love thy neighbor, and hate thine enemy." But Jesus said, "Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them who despitefully use you, and persecute you, that ye may be the sons of the Father" (Matthew 5:44,45). It is characteristic of saints to forgive. We are forgiven, are we not? Have we so soon forgotten what has been forgiven us that we would not forgive someone else? When we fail to forgive someone else, we set ourselves up as a higher court than God because God infinitely forgives. This Sunday we will see why and how we are to forgive others.