Jesus Christ Teachings - Essay Example

My Belief Throughout the lifetime one comes across many teachings which influence a person’s behavior. I have also been exposed to different religions and enlightened masters. But there is one teacher who influences me the most and he is Jesus Christ. I firmly believe in one particular teaching of his and have practiced that belief throughout my life. That teaching is about forgiveness. Jesus tells us in Bible that we should forgive our enemies and by doing so God will forgive us of our sins.

I totally believe in the teaching of forgiveness. Many times in my life I have experienced hostile behavior from others. But I have never hated anyone for a long period of time. I am a human being who like everyone has weaknesses. If I find someone being rude to me without any reason or showing hostility with no apparent cause, I experience an instantaneous rise of hatred in me. But after some time I am able to overcome it. There are many reasons for me believing in the teaching of forgiveness.

I have come across so many researches in the field of medicine which suggests that emotions such as hatred, depression, self-pity and hostility are extremely destructive to one’s body. The root of many such abnormalities is being unforgiving. An anger which arises instantaneously isn’t harmful but holding grudges and seeking revenge is something which destroys one’s peace of mind. Peace of mind is inextricably linked to the well-being of body. When the mind is happy and peaceful, the body undergoes a healing process.

The nerves get their proper rest, breathing is harmonious and hormonal balance is perfect. On the contrary unforgiving nature leads to resentment, grudges and other destructive emotions which harm the body. There was an event in my life where I had a fight with one of my friends. It wasn’t a physical scuffle but a verbal spat. Our friendship hit rock bottom and we didn’t speak to each other for many months. But even after the fight and being of the opinion that the fault was his, I never held any animosity against him.

He on the other hand did not forgive me. He began to devise schemes about bringing me down or humiliating me. But I could see that he had lost his peace of mind and all his tricks were causing harm to him. He started to lose other friends also because of his this attitude. After a few months I persuaded him to come out of his hatred and become friends with me again. I explained to him that forgiveness is a healing balm while hatred is like a virus which may be small in the beginning but eventually destroys its host.

He understood my point and today we share a very special friendship. We both have realized that hatred is like a fever which engulfs the mind of the angry person and makes him/her to things which the person wouldn’t otherwise do. I believe that people should practice forgiveness not only at personal level but also national level. We find that there is too much animosity among neighboring nations such as Israel-Palestine, India-Pakistan, North Korea-South Korea etc. If countries had a forgiving attitude towards each other then the world would be a very peaceful place.

But I don’t think that all this can happen without change at personal level and hence, I firmly believe and practice forgiveness in my own life.