The term 'statute of limitation' suggests after a period of time you have to let go. You can no longer prosecute. We often have to make a choice either to extend forgiveness to someone or to hang on to it and nurse our grievances. A friend we trust betrays us. A roommate criticizes us publicly. A partner swindles us. Someone posts something on social media that isn't true, and it goes viral and stains our reputation. When wronged, we want justice. We want the perpetrator to feel our hurt, to know the pain they have caused. We want revenge.
In scripture, Paul starts thinking like an accountant who records items in a ledger, he says true love doesn't do that. It doesn't record wrongs done against us. Have you ever listened to a person describe something done against them decades ago? They remember every ugly detail. Some of us have no statute of limitations. Unlike Paul, we review our ledger regularly, and we spoil our lives.
Today, many of us have never forgotten a slight against us. We might have appeared to bury the hatchet, but each time, we marked the spot. A pastor said, "Most of what I talk about with people in my church is learning to forgive." Many of us have a bitterness we polish like a priceless antique. We cling to it like a child clutching a favourite, filthy rag of a blanket.
Love lets go.
Love … keeps no record of wrongs. (1 Corinthians 13:4-5).
Let's Pray
Yahweh, please heal my old wounds. Father, give me the grace of forgiveness. And end my record keeping of grievances, as God did through Jesus, who paid for all the wrongs done to me and the ones I have done to others. In Christ's name, Amen.