What is your biggest pet peeve? The sound of someone chewing loudly? A noisy alarm clock or ring tone? Someone who constantly interrupts others?
I tend to think of myself as a fairly easy-going individual, adapting to change and trying to see things “beyond the forest of trees,” proverbially speaking. But one thing in particular frustrates me without fail: driving behind slow drivers in the left lane!
As most of you know by now, I love traveling. I could drive for hundreds of miles and enjoy nearly everything about it. Just recently, a good friend of mine helped me install an Apple CarPlay stereo—along with a new speaker system earlier! And so driving my car now is an even more enhanced convergence of so many things I love. I get to enjoy the art of good music, be productive and run errands, and call up old friends from years gone by, all while cruising through pleasing scenery all around.
But then someone in front of you decides to not obey traffic laws, cuts you off, and drives slow in the passing lane. This happens quite often on highway 29. Traffic begins to pile up, and the individual—uncaring or at least unaware—assumes that you’ll find a way to pass them on the right, endangering all those around them. Talk about frustration!
Isn’t it easy to let this kind of situation provoke us? The kind of situation where your time, safety, and the concerns of others are being blatantly disrespected. But it’s a usual iteration of sorts, because we don’t necessarily need to personify the other person, consider their circumstances and needs, and deal with any long-term repercussions, more than likely.
However, there is an interesting correspondence here. Like being held up by someone in front of you, real relationships hold us up in various ways in life. Perhaps someone’s interactions with you nag on you, cause you heartache, or even stop you from being productive and meeting your own personal goals. The little grievances and sins done against us are often easy to overlook and forbear, but these iterative ones, the ones that are habitual and have residual effects upon us are much harder to forgive, aren’t they?
The Lord’s Prayer in Matthew 6 is formative. A couple weeks ago, I described how the formula Christ taught us in the Lord’s Prayer is apocalyptic in revealing his glory and longing for his kingdom to come in its fullness. It’s also a very relational prayer in that it is rooted in our union with Christ. But the Lord’s Prayer is also formative in a practical sense. It not only gives us pause to reflect upon the gospel and be so formed in our minds and our understanding of God, it shapes the way we interact with the sins of others as we deal with our own sins before a holy God.
Consider this: the Westminster Shorter Catechism tells us that we are encouraged to ask God for him to freely pardon all of our sins (WSC 105). In other words, when we sin, God wants us to not hide from him in shame and sulk under the weight of guilt, but to rather come to him for help. Yet even in contemplating this overwhelming kindness of God, have you ever felt unworthy of coming before him? Perhaps you are well-acquainted with the disjointed fellowship that our sins wrought. Perhaps you have known intimately that your sin grieves the very heart of God.
Surely, our sin is more than a minor offense. It is a rejection of him as God; it is a living of life on our own terms rather than his; it is truly “any want of conformity unto, or transgression of, the law of God” (WSC 14). But God dealt with our sin in a major way. Ephesians 2:4–5 tells us this: “God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses [debts], made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved.”
Our confession of sin then as Christians is simple: “Our Father… Forgive us our debts.” When we dwell on the kindness and compassion of God, we are formed. We who have been forgiven much learn to forgive much. We who have become aware of our sin, become more sensitive to the cruel nature of sin in our own hearts and the interactions of others.
It is not that sin itself is excusable, for it is indeed destructive and has consequences. But when our daily prayer becomes “Father, forgive us our debts,” we learn to be slower to respond to our provocations, to handle sin with wisdom. As we know God’s patience with us, we grow increasingly patient with others. As we dwell on his measureless love and abounding grace toward us in the gospel, the loving spirit and gracefulness that are produced in us will spill over.
As Christians, we certainly shouldn’t neglect sin and be afraid to call it such. We don’t turn a blind eye toward evil or ignore matters of injustice around us. But the manner in which we forbear with one another is integrally informed by the manner in which God has dealt with us. As we patiently forgive others their debts against us, we more readily ask of God to pardon our own debts against him.
Do you desire to be quicker to forgive—to not be so quickly aggravated by the sins and grievances of others? Dwell on the sovereign mercy of Christ. Let it be at the forefront of your mind as you move from one conversation to the next and from one task to another today. Pray for the Spirit to give you the mind of Christ and for him to protect your line of thinking as you seek to be at peace with others, as much as it depends upon you.