Elder Chew Chong Kiat

Forgetfulness

Thank God for a brain that remembers. Thank God that it can also forget.

The Greek word for ‘forget’ is used only 8 times in the New Testament.

Phi 3:13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,

Heb 6:10 For God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labour of love, which ye have shewed toward his name, in that ye have ministered to the saints, and do minister.

Heb 13:2-3 Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body.

Heb 13:16 But to do good and to communicate forget not: for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Jas 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.

Three times it was used to refer to how the disciples had forgotten to bring bread (Mat 16:5; Mark 8:14; Luk 12:6).

The Greek word for ‘forget’ means ‘to lose out of mind’ and has the idea of not caring for or neglecting something in order to lose it from the mind. In Phi 3:13, the verb is in the middle voice which implies that the action of forgetting or not forgetting depends entirely on the person.

FORGETTING

Paul said that in order for him to run the race set before him, he had to forget those things that were behind him. What were those things? He listed some of them in Phi 3:5-6. Before his conversion, he was injurious to the cause of Christ, zealously persecuting the Christians. His past could hold him back in guilt and make him feel unworthy to serve Christ. But believing that he had obtained mercies in Christ (1Tim 1:13, 16), he did not allow the past memories to weigh him down. He had to forget those things and not hold them in his mind. Notice that the action of forgetting was done by himself.

You too have to do the forgetting, no one can do it for you, otherwise you cannot run the race that is set before you, pressing toward the mark of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus (Phi 3:14). The KJ translation has the apt use of the continuous tense "forgetting" to emphasize that to forget is not a one point event but a continuous process. Unedifying memories will not stop plaguing you; there will be triggers and flashbacks. But don’t give place to them at any time or replay them over and over again in your mind. If you do so, these memories will become deeply entrenched in your mind and they will weigh you down. Be like Paul, forget them.

Has a terrible sin you committed or a trespass against you plagued you and hindered you from pressing onward? Has it stumbled you and stunted your spiritual growth, causing you to cut back in your service to God? Has each flashback brought bitterness and you find it difficult to forgive the person who has trespassed against you? You need to forget these things.

I have met people who live in past hurt for decades and are not able to move on. They still feel very miserable each time they recount the sin or the bad experience they had. They were once zealous for the Kingdom of God and active in serving the Lord. But the past has crippled them in the race that is before them! How sad!

You can forget if you choose to ‘lose’ the memory from your mind by not thinking about them. God made your brain to remember something when you recall and rehearse it over and over again. Besides, you remember better when you have an emotional experience attached to the memories. Therefore, reliving a bad experience in the head through rehearsals will only enhance the memory. But not giving place to it in the mind when you are reminded of it will in time cause it to be permanently forgotten. Thank God for forgetfulness! Over time, the details will fade and soon, you can’t even remember the incident and the hurt it has caused you. It requires effort on your part to resist thinking about them when you have a reminder or a flashback. You need much prayer for faith in the mercies of God and much love of God shed abroad in your hearts to forgive the person who has trespassed against you.

NOT FORGETTING

While we are commanded to forget something, we are also told not to forget to be hospitable to strangers and to do good and communicate to them that have needs (Heb 13:2-3,16). We are to remind ourselves, lest we forget, and to do them regularly when an opportunity affords us. It is a sin "to lose out of mind" or "neglect" these matters. We must be careful to maintain such good works as children of God who are re-created in the image of God and to do so as a testimony to the world. On such matters we should think on them, and enquire how we can best help another. This is what our minds should be thinking upon (Phi 4:8). We do not do good because we chance on the occasion. We have to seek out how we can be a blessing to others and to do to others what we would have them do unto us.

We are exhorted by James not to forget who we are as we look into the mirror of the Scripture. Jas 1:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. We ought to have a right knowledge of who we are before God and live in the light of it. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed (v25). We ought to hold before our eyes, lest we forget, the commands of God and to do them. We ought to remember God’s Word so that we can take heed to it and not sin against God. We will have to memorize and muse on them regularly in order that we will not forget.

Another very great matter that we are not to forget is God. One great sin of Israel was to forget God when life was good in the Promised Land. The comforts of life caused them to be so self-sufficient that they forgot God the Giver. We ought to constantly remind ourselves that what we are and what we have are due to the grace and mercies of God and to give thanks always, show our gratitude by presenting our bodies and substance for His use and to His glory.

There is no short cut in the matter of remembering and forgetting. We have to take personal responsibility in both of these duties so that we can press toward the mark of our heavenly calling of Christ our Saviour.