At Wit's End with Satan

Scripture verses that caught my attention today: 2 Corinthians 2:10-11 Anyone whom you forgive, I also forgive. What I have forgiven, if I have forgiven anything, has been for your sake in the presence of Christ. 11 And we do this so that we may not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

Observation: It would appear that lack of forgiveness, in Paul’s view, is a ploy of Satan.

Application: Periodically in life I’ll run into someone who refuses to forgive someone. Some of these folks are extremely thoughtful and are dealing with complex circumstances. They don’t want to offer what might be considered cheap or trite forgiveness and they have enough integrity to know that they are just not yet in a place to be able to offer the type of forgiveness that is authentic from the core. These folks may want to forgive, but are honest enough about themselves to realize that, short of God’s help, they can’t forgive…at least not yet.

But there are other folks that simply refuse to forgive. They could forgive, but they simply will not forgive. They are still too angry, or too wounded, or too stubborn. They simply do not want to forgive and, often times, they don’t really want God to forgive either. The irony in such cases is that almost anyone can see that the people who are being most torn up by this lack of forgiveness are the very people who refuse to forgive in the first place. And I such cases I can’t help but see, perhaps, the proof of what Paul might call “Satan’s designs.”

Sure, sometimes the people who have wronged us show no remorse…or not as much remorse as we think would be appropriate. In such cases, forgiveness is still not so much about them as it is about us. If we can’t quite forgive, we might at least want to consider letting go. Otherwise it would appear that we are being woefully outwitted by Satan’s grand design.

Prayer: Lord, help us to be wise and gracious in dealing with those who are not so wise or gracious. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: Job 41-42 and 2 Corinthians 1-2)