Christians talk a great deal about the forgiveness of God. Christians are thankful for the forgiveness of God. We understand that God is willing to forgive us of all our sins if we repent and obey Him. He is willing to love us and give us a multitude of spiritual blessings if we will turn from our sins. He no longer holds us guilty of our past sins when we are forgiven.
Christians strive to be just as forgiving as God. We are to be long suffering towards those who desire to live for God. We strive to forget past wrongs toward us and others, as well as to embrace new Christians.
Ananias demonstrated proper forgiveness. He was contacted by God in Acts 9 to go and to preach to Saul about conversion to Christ; Saul was known as the great persecutor of Christians. He was in Damascus to find and to imprison Christians. Ananias was hesitant, but God assured him that Saul was turning from his past actions; he desired to do what was right. So, Ananias went and told him what to do to become a Christian.
That was impressive enough, but in verse 19, we find that Ananias was now willing to eat with Saul. When one understands how intimate the action of eating with someone was to a first century Christian, one understands how important it was that we are told that Ananias was willing to eat with Saul. This shows acceptance. This shows love. This shows that Ananias did accept Saul as a brother in Christ.
Ananias took it further. He was willing to listen to Saul preach. It would have been easy for Ananias to get haughty and believe that since he had converted Saul that Saul should be the one listening to him teach and preach. It would have been easy for Ananias to get jealous of the position that Saul was taking in the church. It would have been easy for him to attempt to undermine Saul’s teaching by murmuring about Saul’s past evil actions. Yet, Ananias had forgiven Saul.
Finally, Ananias was willing to help Saul escape from being killed (v. 25). It would have been easy to get rid of an upstart new Christian just by allowing enemies of the church to kill him. However, Ananias had forgiven Saul and desired for him to be able to continue to serve God in whatever capacity God desired. Ananias would not allow evil personal thoughts to hinder preaching by Saul.
Be like Ananias. Be willing to forgive those who have done evil in the past but now are willing to live for Christ. If any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.
