Memory

When I was little I loved playing the classic card game, Memory. I got great satisfaction out of remembering what cards were where when other kids couldn't. In school-age years, I could often remember where on the page a particular piece of information was, and thus correctly answer test questions. It's the way I'm wired.

1 Corinthians 4:5 says that love is not resentful. My Bible says that "resentful" could also be translated "does not count up wrongdoing." Love has a bad memory when it comes to things done against it. It's not that it doesn't choose to flip over the memory cards and see what's there. It throws the cards away. There is no place in love for a list of wrongs.

2 Corinthians 5:19 says that in Jesus Christ, love incarnate, "...God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation." It isn't that he doesn't count your trespasses against you because he doesn't know them. It's because he chooses not to remember them.

When we forgive someone for a particular offense, it means that we're never allowed to bring that offense up again. If we do, it means we've never truly forgiven. It means we've kept a record. It means we haven't loved.

Thanks be to God that in his perfect love, he has declared me righteous in his sight, never to remember my sins again. He has forgiven me and therefore my offenses are gone. They were laid on his Son, Jesus, in my place.

May this be what I remember next time I'm tempted to keep track of someone else's sin.

How is your memory?


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