Great reflection, thank you! How would you elaborate the connection between loving/praying for our enemies and moving to a place of forgiving our enemies?
Thank you, a longer reply is warranted than I can offer. But I'll say that both require intentionally bringing awareness to God as mediator between you and your enemy. It is expanding your relationship with your enemy to not just be about the two of you but understanding how God is present in the situation.
Other thoughts -- we are called to forgive and love enemies regardless of their actions, but I believe a more complete forgiveness involves some degree of repentance. Luke 17 indicates that there is some realism from Jesus about this, " if he sins, rebuke him, If he repents, forgive him." We can still pray for him anyway.
In the court system, we can see how forgiveness is possible to some degree even when criminals do not take ownership, and this is inspiring. But forgiveness also seems to be easier in those cases when a third party confirms wrongdoing even when the committer doesn't. This, I think, is how we can forgive people even when they do not repent, if we trust that God sees the harm done and confirms it for us as a third party. And then of course recognize we have our own debts incurred.
Great reflection, thank you! How would you elaborate the connection between loving/praying for our enemies and moving to a place of forgiving our enemies?
Thank you, a longer reply is warranted than I can offer. But I'll say that both require intentionally bringing awareness to God as mediator between you and your enemy. It is expanding your relationship with your enemy to not just be about the two of you but understanding how God is present in the situation.
Other thoughts -- we are called to forgive and love enemies regardless of their actions, but I believe a more complete forgiveness involves some degree of repentance. Luke 17 indicates that there is some realism from Jesus about this, " if he sins, rebuke him, If he repents, forgive him." We can still pray for him anyway.
In the court system, we can see how forgiveness is possible to some degree even when criminals do not take ownership, and this is inspiring. But forgiveness also seems to be easier in those cases when a third party confirms wrongdoing even when the committer doesn't. This, I think, is how we can forgive people even when they do not repent, if we trust that God sees the harm done and confirms it for us as a third party. And then of course recognize we have our own debts incurred.