Have you ever considered what life would be like without a word for forgiveness? How would you teach about the concept of reconciliation and forgiveness if there was no word to describe it? This was a challenge for missionaries in Brazil for years. They strenuously tried to find a word in the tribal language comparable to the English word forgiveness, only to discover that no such word existed. Why the struggle, you may ask. In the words of one of the tribal men, “There is no word for forgiveness. We don’t have a word for forgiveness because before, forgiveness did not exist in our culture. After someone offended you, every time you saw him you would always say ‘oh, that’s the person who did such-and-such to me’. There was no forgiveness.”
Without the truth of God’s word being taught in such locations, billions of people will remain without an understanding of forgiveness. They will remain without an understanding of who God is and the forgiveness, hope, and life that He bring to all who believe.