Editorial May 12, 1973 Issue

To Forgive and to Heal

Carl J. Welz

Christ Jesus obviously reflected so much of the light of divine Truth that all who came near him were in some way touched. Those who were ready for the light received it and were healed. His healing work often included forgiveness, but the sins he forgave were destroyed, and the sinner was set free of the sin and its effects. This was possible for Jesus because he himself "was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin."^{Heb. 4:15;} If we are seeking to be healers but are not drawing others to us to be healed, it may well be that we are being tempted in some points where we prefer to ignore the sin, and it could be that we are unconsciously using an outward zeal for the work of healing others to cover our lack of concern for the points in which we are still yielding to temptation.

A desire to heal the sick is genuine if it includes a desire to forgive the sinner. Such desire seeks the cause of a disease for the purpose of destroying it, but it never attaches the cause or the disease to the person afflicted. If the cause is sin, right desire aims to prove the person innocent of the sin. And such desire has the power of its source, divine Love. It cannot fail.

An essential step toward learning to forgive is to be forgiven. What one needs to be forgiven of is the material view of his neighbor. To view a neighbor as less than the perfect idea of God is to entertain the thought of the creator as imperfect, and this is a sinful thought. But there is a difference between viewing a neighbor as the perfect child of God and overlooking sin.

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