The importance of forgiveness

“He who covers over an offense promotes love, but whoever repeats the matter separates close friends.” Proverbs 17:9
Forgiveness is something that we as Christians must all learn to do. Our natural (sinful) instinct is to hold on to memories of being hurt by other people, to play the victim, to keep those who have hurt us at arm’s length, to try and get revenge. But the Bible tells us to forgive those who have hurt us, to let go of those past hurts. The person who often benefits most from offering forgiveness, is the one offering it, not the one receiving it! And, forgiveness is not a feeling: it’s a choice – a choice to leave the past in the past, and not let it affect your future relationship with that person.
The first part of this proverb is reminiscent of 1 Pet. 4:8 – “love covers over a multitude of sins”. The supreme example of this is God, who demonstrated His love for us by having His Son die on the cross. If we have God’s love working in our lives, we too will seek to cover the sins of others with forgiveness. This doesn’t mean to pretend as if those sins never happened, but to deal with them in a Biblical way: through acknowledgement of the sin, repentance, and forgiveness.
The second part of the proverb shows another aspect, and one we don’t often consider when we gripe and moan about someone else to our friends: Constantly bringing up your past hurst about someone to your friends will make them not like you. There are several reasons for this – firstly, they’ll get sick of hearing about it, and secondly, they’ll start wondering if you’ll talk to other people about them in the same way. So the lesson is clear: learn to forgive people. It will set you free.