Book #21: Forgiving by Timothy Keller
Forgive: Why Should I and How Can I? by Timothy J. Keller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
One of the parables Jesus told was about a servant who owed a lot of money to his master. Being unable to pay his debt, the master made several threats against him, until he begged and the master showed mercy.
However, subsequently the same servant accosted one of his fellows who also owed him money, and refused to relent when asked to show the same mercy. When the master found out, he inflicted the harshest punishment he could on the unforgiving servant, having refused to follow the example he had been set.
This of course is a metaphor; the master is God, and the servants are humanity. Because Jesus died on the cross the cancel out our sins, we should forgive others.
Forgiving those who have wronged us is a challenge for everyone, but this book forms a comprehensive guide to why we should forgive others, and how to do it. One of my favourite examples was from another book where the author was given an agressive tackle by an opponent, but repaid the act of aggression with a loving attitude. As Jesus said, if you repay hate with love, you will "pour hot coals on the enemy's head". In the case above, the aggressor acknowledged the love that his opponent had shown him after the match.
As Timothy Keller notes, one of the main barriers to people being able to forgive is a desire for justice to be served on earth, rather than waiting for God to judge others Himself ("we sit ourselves in the Judge's seat"). However, Keller argues here that if you don't forgive someone, you really give them power over yourself, an idea I had never thought about before.
I feel priveleged that I've heard the late Timothy Keller speak a couple of times before at events, and I really enjoyed this book. It's very comprehensive, but also easy to understand.
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