So often, it seems like people and even churches want grace without responsibility. With forgiveness comes a responsibility to be forgiving. Our response comes through the ability to confess our love to Jesus and confess our shortcomings, our flaws, and our sins. It is the response to grace that seeks to be accountable to others as we attempt to live out this love that God puts in our hearts. The cancellation of debts (of our debts) is pure grace that shows itself by loving others and being a lover of truth. It means responding to God’s grace by learning to love all the ways of God that brings fullness of God’s truth and God’s life into our lives.
This response loves even to the point of admitting when were wrong and seeking to set things right again through restitution and making amends. I have been convinced of this: the closer that I draw to my Lord, the more I see my own inadequacies, flaws, and sins. Sometimes I see things that I never saw before or I see them in such a way that I didn’t realize was very evident but now have become in God’s light such a glaring defect. Honestly, fifteen years ago, I wouldn’t have identified too much with Simon but now as I have grown so much closer to my Lord than I was back then, I suddenly see Simon in myself much more than I really am comfortable seeing. But you know the result? I love Jesus all that much more and I am determined that I will honor the challenge that Jesus gives me through this parable to love others and seek to see people through the eyes of Jesus. I realize how much more God has forgiven me than I have ever realized before and that fills my heart with so much gratitude that words can’t even express.
How about it? Have you been forgiven much? Are you loving much?