More about Naaman, the slave girl and forgiveness

When you forgive, that means you absorb the loss and the debt.  You bear it yourself.  All forgiveness then is costly.  The slave girl of Naaman’s wife shows sympathy and concern for Naaman rather than bitterness or wanting revenge.  She could have made him bear the cost for what he had done to her.  Instead she forgave him and became the vehicle of his healing, she trusted God to be the judge of all.

We should not infer from this that forgiving means we should submit passively to oppression and injustice.  The Bible’s call to forgive and to seek justice are not mutually exclusive but complementary.  If you cannot do the interior work of forgiveness, you will seek excessive personal revenge rather than true justice.  You will not do a good job at confronting and correcting wrongdoers unless you first forgive them in your heart.  When you have lost the inner need to see the other person suffer then you will have a chance of actually bringing about justice, change and healing.  (Excerpts from Keller/Counterfeit Gods)