Mete

I remember one of the most interesting words I leaned in high school was 'mete'.
I remember when I first saw the word I did not even know how to tackle the pronunciation.
I remember when the class finally found out what it meant I thought it was one of the coolest words I've ever learned:

Mete

Part of Speech: verb

Definition: administer, distribute


I remember my amazement with 'mete' was simply because of the length of the word; four letters, two of which are the same letter. So cool!

I may sound like a word freak; better yet, you may be thinking I'm a word freak. Actually, I'm really not! It's just that some words, although small, are so powerful; like 'mete'.



Matthew 6: 12, "... and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us." NLT



We all know the Lord's Prayer by head and heart. But I ask, how many of us actually understand it? I believe that I have yet to fully understand what it all really means, and in trying to understand it I've put some serious thought into it.

Read carefully: and forgive us our sins...

This is me and you asking God to forgive us our sins. Simple. It's like saying, "Yo God! (well, not 'yo' since He is God; it'll be more like 'dear God') I want you to forgive me (please)."

There is nothing wrong with asking God to wipe out all of the sins we've ever committed during the minute, hour, day, week, month, year, century, lifetime... As a matter of fact, God wants us to ask Him to forgive our sins. He even said that He'll take our sins and lock 'em up in some sort of special case, tie it up in some special way with some special strength and throw it somewhere deep in the ocean so it can sink somewhere deep into the ocean and never remember them again!

So so cool!

So for the most part, we want God to simply forgive our sins. Period.

Period...?

Look closer; there's more: ... as we forgive those who have sin against us.

What does that say?!

Oh, sorry! It says:... as we forgive those who have sin against us!

Don't you wish I had just left it in the smaller font? In reality, that's exactly how some of us see it. Better yet, that's exactly how I sometimes see it.

This portion of the verse illustrates me forgiving someone else for something that person has done to me.

There's nothing wrong with that, right? For example, if I'm standing at the check-out line in Walmart and some random dude bumps into me and says, "Oh! forgive me", with no problem I should let him know it's cool by saying something like, "It's cool" and give him some kind of subtle look to say, "... just don't do that again, dude."

But I'm not sure that's the kind of forgiving Jesus is referring to in this verse. I believe He was/is talking about things way deeper than just some random dude bumping into me (or you) at Walmart; something along the line of, for example, being betrayed by a loved one, or someone falsely messing up your reputation and ruining your entire persona, or someone murdering my/your mother or father or sibling or husband or wife or fiance or boy/girlfriend or best friend...

Get it?

Let's write out the entire verse, "...and forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who have sin against us."

Let's write it out again, in a different way, "... and mete to us forgiveness for our sins, as we mete forgiveness to those who have sin against us."

Almost getting it?

To really understand what this verse is saying, the key word is 'as'; what do you know, another small yet powerful word!

As

Part of speech: conjunction

Definition: in the way that; to a degree

What the Word is really saying is that we can only obtain the same amount or quality of forgiveness we are giving to those who have offended us.

Huh?

MEANING, if I forgive partially (which is not really forgiving), then when I pray and say, "Yo God! (well, not 'yo' since He is God; it'll be more like 'dear God') I want you to forgive me (please)", we're implying, "... in the same way You see I forgive so and so for having done such and such."


I'm gonna let that sink in for a bit. . . . .




When I think about it, this is really something hard to do. Personally, I have suffered a lot of pain in my short life so far and there are a lot of people whom I have yet to forgive entirely. I know if I try to take on this requirement on my own, then I may never obtain God's forgiveness. I don't think that me as a human I know how to forgive, and that is why I must ask God to not only help me forgive, but teach me how to forgive.

True forgiveness only comes from God. God is a God of forgiveness!

Jeremiah 33: 8, 9 "I will cleanse them of their sins against me and forgive all their sins of rebellion. Then this city will bring me joy, glory, and honor before all the nations of the earth! The people of the world will see all the good I do for my people, and they will tremble with awe at the peace and prosperity I provide for them."

This is one of the many promises God has made to you and me. So it only makes sense that if I'm having problems learning how to forgive, I should go to the Fountain of forgiveness.

Think about it: in life people are going to continue hurting us in the worst possible ways, some intentionally and some not. What is the good of carrying around the weight of these burdens in one's heart? The key is, once we've let go of them through forgiveness, God promises to mete peace and prosperity.

peace and prosperity....

peace and prosperity...

Peace and prosperity...

Peace and prosperity...

Peace and prosperity...