Why forgiving your enemies doesn’t make you a doormat. On July 8, 1838, the seventh president of the United States, General Andrew Jackson, informed his minister, the Reverend Dr. John Edgar, that he wanted to become a member of the Presbyterian Church and receive Communion. According to the account from Jackson’s biographer, Robert Remini, Dr. Edgar asked the president about his conversion and convictions, and gave his approving nod with each satisfactory answer. But Dr. Edgar was a godly minister, and he felt the need to probe the president’s soul more deeply. “General, there is one more question which it is my duty to ask you,” Edgar announced. “Can you forgive all your enemies?” The question stunned General Jackson. He stared at his minister for a moment while he gathered his thoughts. He then broke the silence: “My political enemies, I can freely forgive,” Jackson confessed. “But as for those who abused me when I was serving my country in the field, and those who attacked me for serving my country—Doctor, that is a different case.” This was an honest answer, but Dr. Edgar wasn’t satisfied. Christians must forgive all, Edgar insisted to America’s seventh president. This was absolute. Lamblike Grace Unlike Andrew Jackson, few of us have had to suffer in the service of our country. But each of us knows how hard it is to forgive—to bear injury from others, from those who have mistreated us. And yet Dr. Edgar was correct in his insistence that Christians must forgive all. Followers of Jesus will suffer mistreatment with what Jonathan Edwards called a “lamblike disposition”—the kind we see in Jesus. Slights and slanders, hurts and harms are met with meekness, not ... Continue reading... #Toronto #GTA #News
Posted on: Wed, 05 Nov 2014 15:51:40 +0000
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