Bartolome Esteban Murillo's, The Return of the Prodigal Son

I stated “Five Truths About Forgiveness” last week.

This thought needs to be taken a step farther, though.  The issue of forgiveness can and should be brought to a more practical level.

The question must be asked, “What does forgiveness look like?

To answer that question I propose the following:

Seven Things Forgiveness Is and Does:

1. Resists revenge (Rom. 12:19)
2. Doesn’t return evil for evil (I Thess. 5:15)
3. Wish the person well (Luke 6:28)
4. Grieve at their tragedies (Prov. 24:17)
5. Pray for their welfare (Matt. 5:44)
6. Seek reconciliation from them so far as it depends on you (Rom. 12:18)
7. Come to their aid in distress (Ex. 23:4)

Anti-plagiarism safety net:

You need to know that I borrowed the ideas in this post from two others.  The content is not my own.

• John Piper’s sermon, “As We Forgive Our Debtors” is where I took most of this from.
• Chris Brauns offered helpful comments on this post.  Chris has written a book on forgiveness which you should most definitely check out—Unpacking Forgiveness: Biblical Answers to Complex Questions and Deep Wounds.

Make sure to do your part:

I’m sure there’s more application for this subject.  If I’ve missed anything, or you feel you can better articulate how to practically apply biblical forgiveness, by all means help us all out and leave a comment.