The Opposite of Love<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Luke 11:4 \u2013 \u2026and\u00a0forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And\u00a0lead us not into temptation. Romans 12:17-21 \u2013 Repay no\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdriscoll\/2019\/10\/the-opposite-of-love\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Opposite of Love\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Luke 11:4 \u2013 \u2026and\u00a0forgive us our sins, for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And\u00a0lead us not into temptation. 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{"id":8517,"date":"2019-10-30T07:00:11","date_gmt":"2019-10-30T11:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdriscoll\/?p=8517"},"modified":"2019-08-29T16:30:44","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T20:30:44","slug":"the-opposite-of-love","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/markdriscoll\/2019\/10\/the-opposite-of-love\/","title":{"rendered":"The Opposite of Love"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Luke 11:4 \u2013 \u2026<\/em>and\u00a0forgive us our sins,<\/em> for we ourselves forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And\u00a0lead us not into temptation.<\/em><\/p>\n

Romans 12:17-21 \u2013 <\/em>Repay no one evil for evil, but\u00a0give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. If possible, so far as it depends on you,\u00a0live peaceably with all. Beloved,\u00a0never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written,\u00a0\u201cVengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.\u201d To the contrary,\u00a0\u201cif your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.\u201d Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.<\/em><\/p>\n

Unforgiveness is the opposite of love. When we keep a record of wrongs, we are acting as an accountant and keeping score of the spiritual debt others have accrued to us. This is why unforgiving people say things such as, \u201cThey owe me,\u201d \u201cI will make them pay,\u201d and \u201cI will get even.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesus teaches us that when we forgive someone, we are canceling whatever debt they owe us. In the Lord\u2019s Prayer, Jesus teaches us to pray, \u201cforgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.\u201d Perhaps teaching it on a different occasion, Jesus makes a slight modification: \u201cforgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.\u201d Did you catch the difference? Jesus uses the words \u201cdebts\u201d and \u201csins\u201d synonymously.<\/p>\n

If you make someone pay, that is vengeance. Vengeance is something that we need to trust God for and not take into our own hands. God said, \u201cVengeance is mine, I will repay.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you absorb the loss and pay for them, that is forgiveness. In forgiving someone, you choose not to sit as a judge and render a sentence on someone else. Instead you are sending that case to God\u2019s higher court, which will result in them either being sentenced to the eternal debtors\u2019 prison of hell or having their debt paid by Jesus on the cross.<\/p>\n

To order the new book from Pastor Mark & Grace Driscoll \u201cWin Your War\u201d, visit: https:\/\/amzn.to\/2YuhoDn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the entire eight-week \u201cWin Your War\u201d sermon series from Pastor Mark, visit www.markdriscoll.org<\/a> or the Mark Driscoll Ministries app.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"