“And in that day, declares the Lord, you will call me ‘My Husband’ and no longer will you call me ‘My Baal.’ For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth, and they shall be remembered by name no more. And I will make for them a covenant on that day with the beasts of the field, the birds of the heavens and the creeping things of the ground. And I will abolish the bow, the sword and war from the land, and I will make you lie down in safety.”

Hosea 2:16-18 (ESV)

How difficult is it to forgive someone who has wronged you? I don’t mean someone who just annoys you, but rather someone that has done a legitimate injustice to you. Forgiving someone who has wronged you is hard. Whether it was valid or not, it is always difficult. How do we forgive our enemy? Can we truly forgive them?

This passage demonstrates something that we all need to understand. In Hosea, God uses the image of an unfaithful wife to describe the way Israel broke God’s covenant. In the first part of chapter two, God outlines everything that Israel has done. It is pointed and the language is harsh. However, following this indictment against Israel, we come to this passage. Even when Israel utterly failed to keep the covenant and completely betrayed God, God still brought them back to Him.

This is the kind of forgiveness we need to have. Israel wronged God and yet He forgave them. We completely wronged God and yet He saved us. So when we are faced with those who have completely wronged or hurt us, let us forgive them in the same way that God forgave us. Now, it is not going to be easy, but through the love and power that God has given us through the Holy Spirit, it is possible. This can only come through the power of God. If we are not walking in line with His will or if we have yet to surrender our lives to Him, it will be next to impossible to truly love your enemies. If you haven’t accepted the forgiveness that comes through Christ, I would urge you to place your faith in Him. In Christ, there is forgiveness and with that forgiveness comes the ability to reconcile the broken relationships in our lives.

This week, love your enemies just as God has loved us. Let us show them the same forgiveness that God has shown us. Let the salvation that God has given to us be shared with our enemies that they might become our brothers and sisters in Christ!