No one has asked me, but I want to share how I usually come up with a scripture to punctuate a blog entry. I don’t often begin with a scripture in mind or, even if the blog was inspired by one verse, I want to close with another one. When I have finish drafting the blog, I wait in silence for God to bring a verse to mind. That’s one advantage of a lifetime of bible study and scripture memory!

When I was closing the blog centered around Marvin Olasky’s article, I thought of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant to mind, and I used Jesus’ closing words:

Then his master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. Matthew 18.32 – 35, ESV)

I’ve never thought of myself or my white friends as unforgiving servants, but as I thought about the kind of responses Marvin Olasky received and many of the posts I’ve seen with respect to the racial unrest, it’s beginning to feel like some of us are forgetting how much we’ve been forgiven of. It feels like we’ve developed a spirit of unforgiveness toward blacks. “Yes, you were shadowed while shopping, but that’s because of a high black crime rate.” In other words, “You deserve it.”

Yes, God has forgiven all of us a great debt, and we have the privilege of passing that forgiveness on. Much of the time, I’m afraid, some of us live as if no forgiveness for us was necessary. Or, like the unforgiving servant, we forget. Just a thought. I’m still processing this.

For you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. (Revelation 3.17, ESV)

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3.12 – 16, ESV)