1 Corinthians 13:4-5  Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. ⁵ It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 

 On my way into work this morning I was talking to God about someone I thought I had forgiven but I haven’t forgotten how they treated me. It is a person who hurt me deeply as a child. Someone who went out of their way to humiliate me when I was just a kid. It was an adult who professed to be a Christian. When this person’s name gets brought up I just smile and nod but my heart cringes. I remember what they did and how they went out of their way to do it. They were a person that other people thought highly of. They made sure I knew that I was less than. My circumstances were less than. My divorced parents? My beautiful, BEAUTIFUL, divorcee Mother, low-income lifestyle, clothes? My ADHD? Who knows. I just know that they were unkind to me and kind to others, and it confused me. I wanted them to like me, to experience their favor. What I got was cruelty. I have forgiven them a long time ago but, BUT, every time I hear something about this person, a little fire flares. Those embers that remain in your heart that never quite fully extinguish. Those thoughts that still sting are unforgiveness. They are my brain keeping a record of the wrongs they had done.

Christian Forgiveness is hard. It’s not like the world’s view of forgiveness. As a Christian we are required to forgive and the hardest part, keep no record of wrongs. As God’s child, we cannot hang onto festering fumes of anger and hurt. It’s hard enough to forgive but how do we forgive and forget?

In 1 Corinthians 13, The Bible says love. Love is patient and kind and keeps no records of wrong (vs 5) The ESV translates “keeping no record of wrongs” as not being resentful.

The NASB says love “does not keep an account of a wrong suffered“.  

To Take an account, to reckon, to keep track of in Greek Strong’s: 3049 logízomai (the root of the English terms “logic, logical“) – properly, compute, “take into account”; reckon (come to a “bottom-line”), i.e. reason to a logical conclusion (decision).

It’s the root of the English word logic. An accounting. To keep track of someone’s sins, to remember their wrong doings and to become resentful of them. The EXACT thing we hope The Lord Never does for us. The exact thing Jesus died to give us, forgiveness with no account, register or log of our flaws, failings and sin. God is not checking His record book of your wrongs. If God The Father was presented with a list of our sins, He would only see the brush strokes of His Sons precious blood painted over our worst transgressions. It defies logic. That is how powerful forgiveness in Christ is! It makes no sense, you can forgive and not keep a record of it. Hear this, You can because that is exactly what God (in Christ Jesus) does. He forgives us and remembers it no more.

Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful toward their iniquities, and I will remember their sins no more.”

Psalms 103:12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

Forgiveness is a two-step process. First, we drag it kicking and screaming before the Lord. He helps us whittle down the mountain (or maybe just a little hill) of hurt and anger until we can honestly say we forgive someone. Then the harder part, in my opinion, is to stop keeping a record of their wrongs. This isn’t done in a vacuum. We need God’s help to stop those intrusive thoughts and move forward. Of all the things Paul says love is in 1 Corinthians, it is all of those and it is also a practice. It is forgiving over and over in our hearts and minds. It is redirecting those angry, hurt feelings away from the person and putting our focus directly on The Holy Spirit to lead us away again and again until we are looking at it in the rearview mirror. Forgiveness is not pretty and it’s not easy. It’s that beautiful little flower that just suddenly pops up in the crack of a concrete sidewalk, surprising you with its beauty. It is an illogical miracle, one that can hardly be understood this side of heaven. One day it is not there and then suddenly it is. It is so precious to the Lord because if you can forgive the worst of what someone has done to you, you can briefly, infinitesimally, for one zeptosecond understand what it cost Jesus to forgive you. Illogical, illimitable love.