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Forgiveness???
- Thread starter Salty
- Start date
IMHO it is neither. It is to be like Christ. Scripture tells us if we do not then God will not forgive us. I think this is because we would be walking in darkness. Withholding forgiveness is a type of hate.
It has nothing to do with the other person. It also is not to make us feel better. It is Christ in us.
My two cents anyway.
Neither. We forgive because our King tells us to do so. It is an act of obedience.
Ephesians 4:32 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.
Colossians 3:12-13 Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.
I agree. I have found that when we obey, even for obedience sake alone, God changes us spiritually.
I have forgiven when I did not want to forgive. But God worked through that to change how I viewed others and to teach me about forgiveness.
But it all starts with obedience. We are commanded to forgive - as believers we should not view this as optional. God never blesses disobedience.
37818
Well-Known Member
Neither. We forgive because we were fully forgiven (Hebrews 10:17, Ephesians 4:32, Colossians 3:13).
evenifigoalone
Well-Known Member
Well, ultimately we are told to do the things we are for two reasons:
1. for others
2. for God
That's what all the laws and commandments are about, are they not?
If God tells us to do something, maybe we don't always know the reasoning behind it, but......I tend to think that God wants us to show forgiveness and openness to others, for their sakes. So that they know what grace and compassion looks like, and that that might draw them to God.
But it's also true that not forgiving someone also hurts yourself by keeping that burden in your heart. You're actively holding something against them. That weighs on you.
1. for others
2. for God
That's what all the laws and commandments are about, are they not?
If God tells us to do something, maybe we don't always know the reasoning behind it, but......I tend to think that God wants us to show forgiveness and openness to others, for their sakes. So that they know what grace and compassion looks like, and that that might draw them to God.
But it's also true that not forgiving someone also hurts yourself by keeping that burden in your heart. You're actively holding something against them. That weighs on you.
Barry Johnson
Well-Known Member
Because we have been forgiven all, we should forgive . Its harder to forgive until you realise how much we have been forgiven by God and eternally saved . Our hearts should be full of compassion because of this .
YES!!!!!!!!!!
Which is it - or is it both?
RighteousnessTemperance&
Well-Known Member
Ultimately it is about relationship. Our relationship with God is based on forgiveness, dramatically so. Others need that same relationship with God. God is reconciling us to himself and to each other.
Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 2, and also in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:
Paul speaks of this in Ephesians 2, and also in 2 Corinthians 5:16-21:
16 So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded Christ in this way, we do so no longer. 17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! 18 All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: 19 that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting people’s sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. 20 We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us. We implore you on Christ’s behalf: Be reconciled to God. 21 God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Both!!
If forgiveness is offered, but rejected - (a true ability TO reject) - then it benefits only the one offering forgiveness. It releases a mental/emotional/spiritual burden that cuts out a cancer that could/would eat at one's soul for years.