“Thus you shall say to Joseph, “Please forgive, I beg you, the transgression of your brothers and their sin, for they did you wrong.”’

The voice of the Lord will always say “forgive.” Perhaps, there is no other character in scripture who demonstrates what true forgiveness is more than Joseph. His story is one of heartache, abuse, and false accusations. Yet, he was willing to forgive everyone who did him wrong. The very ones he thought would love him, his own family, turned their back on him, tried to murder him, and they sent him away as for dead. Yet, in all of this, Joseph displayed a forgiving heart. It would have been easy for Joseph to take revenge. It would have been easy for his anger to rage against his brothers. Joseph forgave. Through his act of forgiveness, Joseph saved his entire family.

The voice of the Lord will always say “forgive.” When our repentance is true and we are ready to confess, the voice the psalmist echoes in our hearts, “Lord, against you and you alone have I sinned.” (Psalm 51:4) We are met face to face with the voice of Unconditional Love, the voice that tenderly says, “Who condemns you? Your sins are forgiven. Now go and sin no more.” (John 18:11) God’s forgiveness of our sins, through the work of Christ, brings us to perfect freedom. We are no longer held in bondage by our sin or held in contempt of what we have done. We are given a second chance to live, but not just live – to live abundantly. Christ’s command to ‘go and sin no more’ was a command to take life at the reigns and truly live as God intended us to. Christ’s love is a restoring and redeeming love. This is what happened when Joseph forgave his family. He freed his family to now live to their fullest. He gave them a second chance to soar and rise above. Forgiveness brought blessings. Forgiveness will always bring blessings. But what might have happened if Joseph chose not to forgive?

The voice of the Lord will always say “forgive.” There is a true and trustworthy saying found in 1 John 3:15 that says, “Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart.” When we refuse to forgive, we are essentially murdering that person. Here is the important thing we all need to understand about unforgiveness. When we hold someone else in contempt, what we are actually doing is holding ourselves in bondage. We will never have true freedom or even true happiness if we hold onto bitterness. It will prevent us from truly being restored and healed. Hebrews 12:15 says, “see to it that no one comes short of the grace of God; that no root of bitterness springing up causes trouble, and by it many be defiled…” Our unforgiveness will defile. The harder truth of this scripture is that it will not just defile the person we hate, but it will defile us, our family, and our friends. Take the warning. If you are holding unforgiveness towards someone, cut it out. Go and reconcile. Reconciliation will be the only way you can be freed from the bondage of the sin of unforgiveness. If Joseph had not forgiven, he would have defiled both himself and his whole family. The blessings that came because of his forgiveness would never have happened.

The voice of the Lord will always say “forgive.” Like Joseph, we are faced repeatedly with the same options: to allow bitterness to fester and defile ourselves and others; or to forgive and allow God’s blessings to set us free and restore us. The enemy wants to hold us in our bondage by keeping us from forgiving. The enemy wants us to murder our brothers, our spouses, or our friends in our hearts. God wants to set us free by giving us the opportunity to forgive. God wants to restore and give life to us, our brothers, our spouses, and our friends. He said to me, “Forgive.” I will forgive.