And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you. (Ephesians 4:32)
God wants to bring each of us to the place where we remove all secondary causes and see Him at work in our lives. In spite of all that Joseph had been through, he knew God was working. (Read Genesis 45:1-5)
When Joseph saw that Judah was a broken man, he could not refrain himself. He caused all the others to go out, and he made himself known to his brothers. He explained to them, “Do not be troubled because you sold me into Egypt. God was working. You sold me, but God sent me.”
Joseph saw that it was really God who allowed him to be sold and who placed him in Potiphar’s house. He saw God’s hand in it all.
Joseph truly forgave his brothers for the sin they had committed against him. He did not live his life with bitterness in his heart. You may ask, “How was he able to forgive?” The Lord enabled him to forgive because he saw by faith that God was in every circumstance.
The Principle of Forgiveness
Joseph knew what it meant to forgive. Do we? The great principle of forgiveness is found in Ephesians 4:32. Christians are to forgive “even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”
We may not think someone deserves forgiveness, but the truth is that none of us deserve to be forgiven. We have been forgiven “for Christ’s sake.”
No one can merit forgiveness. God can forgive us because Christ has paid our sin debt. The principle here is that we are to forgive others because God has forgiven us.
What does it mean to forgive? To forgive meant that Joseph was willing to treat his brothers as if they had never done anything wrong to him. He was willing to live his life as if his brothers had never sinned against him. This is what it means to forgive someone.
The Principle Put into Practice
Christ talked with Peter about forgiveness in Matthew 18:21—“Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?” The Lord answered: “I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven (v. 22).”
He did not mean that we should forgive only 490 times. The principle of forgiveness put into practice means that we never come to a place where we are unwilling to forgive. We are always to forgive.
Joseph could have hated every day of his life. With all the things that had happened to him, he could have been miserable if he had not practiced the principle of forgiveness. When we can see the Lord in our lives and look to Him, we can put this principle into practice.
The Power to Forgive
Where does the power to forgive come from? It is not in our power. We find this power in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is able.
If we are not abiding in Christ and giving Him the place that He deserves in our lives, we will find it very difficult to forgive. God’s Word teaches this in John 15:1-5. The branch only brings forth what the vine produces. The power to love and forgive others only comes from the Lord Jesus. He is our source. He is the vine; we are the branches.
As Christians, we can have a spiritual relationship with God that enables us to deal with people in a Christlike way. Christ has demonstrated to us what it truly means to forgive, and it is only in Him that we find strength to forgive others. We must be so full of Christ that He loves others through us.