We live in a society that knows and cares little about forgiveness. In fact, I would think that one of the major contributors to the destruction of relationships in our culture is the absence of forgiveness.

Our culture pushes us to be unforgiving. It celebrates and exalts people who are not willing to forgive. We make heroes out of the Dirty Harry’s and the Rambo’s who murder people out of vengeance. As a result of this unforgiveness, we have a society filled with bitterness, vengeance, anger and hate toward others.

For a Christian, however, the failure to forgive is unthinkable. Whatever the issue, whatever the offense, a failure to forgive is a blatant act of disobedience. We have been told as explicitly as possible that if anybody offends us, we are to forgive them. How many times? Seventy times seven — that is, an endless number of times (Matthew 18:22).

To look at this issue from the negative side for a moment, if we buy into this culture — a culture that says you don’t have to forgive, you have a right to your pound of flesh — I’ll give you four things that will happen in the life of a Christian.