I would like to pose a similar question. If a person wrongs you, yet you do not take offense to it, is it still considered a sin? Let me give you an example. Let’s say someone you work with makes a critical comment about you. Maybe they don’t like your haircut, or your clothes or the way you do your job. You know that criticism is something God hates, (remember the Israelites wandering through the desert?) So your first thought is that she is wrong for being critical. And, according to the Bible, you have judged correctly. But if you consider the question I just posed and you don’t take offense at her comment, and you truly let it go from your heart and don’t hold it against her, then what happened to that sin?

When someone wrongs you, your first, natural reaction will usually be to point out the fact that the person is wrong. Whether you say it out loud or not, that’s usually the way your mind will think. If you’ve kept it to yourself so far, then that in itself isn’t so bad. But now you are presented with a choice. What do you do now that you realize this person has wronged you? Do you "retain their sin"? Do you become their judge and pass a condemning sentence on them? Do you expose their sin? Do you retaliate? What do you do? What did Jesus do? What did He teach us to do?

How does love cover a multitude of sins? By refusing to retain them. By refusing to hold on to them. By forgiving them.

We often criticize the Pharisees for refusing to see God in what Jesus taught and how He lived. They stuck to the law they had at the time and had a hard time accepting what Jesus said. What was this talk about love and mercy? We need to be careful we don’t fall into the same trap and become so judgmental about how those around us are not living up to biblical standards that we forget the message Jesus preached.

I remember years ago something that happened to me that I have since considered to be one of the greatest examples of the love of God at work in a person. And this person didn’t even profess to be a Christian at the time! I was at work when my supervisor called and said that if a certain person called on the phone I was to lie and tell him something that was not true. I turned to my co-worker and told her what the supervisor said. It was only the two of us working so one of us would be the one to answer the phone. She knew without me saying anything that I was not happy about this and I didn’t want to lie. Immediately, she looked at me and said, "Oh my God, Rose, you can’t lie—you’re a Christian! I’ll take the call. I’ll do it. Just give the call to me." I was flabbergasted that she would be willing to lie so I didn’t have to. Yet this is, in a sense, what Jesus did by taking all of our sins. He bore the punishment for our sins just as if He would have committed those sins Himself. I was so thankful that she was willing to do that, yet I felt terrible for being willing to let her do it! (The person never called by the way so neither one of us had to lie).

Now, of course this doesn’t mean you look for opportunities to purposely sin so others don’t have to. But the willingness to suffer the consequence of another’s sin is the kind of love Jesus had. Considering what He did, can’t we at least keep our mouths shut and forgive from the heart when someone wrongs us? Sure we’re suffering a wrong, but we’re suffering the consequence of their sin just like Jesus did for us.

Jesus’ example is sincere love and humility. Not a false humility where you are secretly patting yourself on the back the next time you forgive someone and you think that you are a "better" Christian because you forgave them. Or when you talk about it to someone and let them know that you accomplished this difficult task of forgiving them rather than passing a condemning sentence or exposing their sin.

If you just appear to be loving others when inside you’re just feeding your pride and gloating over how great of a Christian you are then that’s just as bad, (if not worse), then going the opposite way and condemning them.

You can do it! You can love them with sincere love, not because of who they are, but because of who you are—a child of God—and because of who Jesus is in you!

Daily Creed