THEY KNOW NOT WHAT THEY DO

Matthew 6:14-15

If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

During the Korean War, a South Korean Christian man and his teenaged son, both civilians non-combatants, were arrested by the North Korean military and ordered to be executed. A young communist military leader learned that the older prisoner was in charge of an orphanage that cared for young children, so he decided to spare the father and to just have the teenager executed - while the boy's father watched. As the fortunes of war changed, the young military leader would later be captured by UN forces, brought up on charges, and be sentenced to death. Before the sentencing could be carried out, however, the Christian man whose son was executed pleaded for the life of his son’s murderer. The grieved father declared that, "He was young and that he really didn’t know what he was doing. Give him to me and I’ll train him." The UN tribunal granted the request, and that very man took his son’s murderer into his own home and cared for him. That young man found guilty of murder would later go on to became a Christian pastor dedicated to sharing the holy Gospel. The moral of the story is that if we don’t forgive, we could miss an opportunity to see a life change before our very eyes. So what happens if you don’t forgive? Well, Matthew 6:14-15 is pretty clear about what will happen the next time you ask for forgiveness.