In order to repent, do you need to find the people to whom you set a bad example?<\/a>“<\/p>\nRepentance is the change in a person’s behavior because they were sorry for what they had done in the past. “For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted; but the sorrow of the world produces death. For observe this very thing, that you sorrowed in a godly manner: What diligence it produced in you, what clearing of yourselves, what indignation, what fear, what vehement desire, what zeal, what vindication! In all things you proved yourselves to be clear in this matter<\/em>” (II Corinthians 7:10-11). Repentance should leave those who know you amazed at how much you have changed for the better.<\/p>\nBut as I pointed out in the earlier answer, the past can’t be undone. If you know someone has something against you because of your past behavior, you ought to attempt to apologize and make it right. “Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way. First be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift<\/em>” (Matthew 5:23-24). It won’t be possible in every case. Some people won’t wish to let go of their hatred, and many you won’t know what happened to them over the years. Instead of setting an impossible task for yourself, just plan that if you do happen to run into them again that you will let them know that you were wrong. And by that time they will know you mean it because they will see how much you have changed.<\/p>\nBut to directly answer your question, I don’t know of any passage that requires a person to track down every person he ever sinned against and apologize before God would forgive them of his sins. Instead, think of it in terms of repentance. If I stole money from a friend, can I claim to have changed while keeping the money? If I had a child out of wedlock, can I claim to have repented while ignoring the child’s existence?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Question: How should a Christian handle sins that have been committed in the past as far as contacting each person whom he has sinned against? Must each person be contacted before the Christian is forgiven? Answer: A similar question was asked a few years ago. See: “In order to repent, do you need to find…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[51,1571,50],"class_list":["post-20140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-confession","tag-forgiveness","tag-repentance"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":36011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-god-accept-a-couple-who-committed-fornication-in-the-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":0},"title":"Can God accept a couple who committed fornication in the past?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I accepted\u00a0Christ\u00a0three years ago, and I was committed to\u00a0submit\u00a0to him and to remain pure. After a while, I started flirting with temptation and eventually sinned. My boyfriend was in the same position. We both served God and we both have our own testimonies, but we fell into fornication. At\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22926,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-godly-sorrow-and-how-can-a-wheelchair-bound-person-be-baptized\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":1},"title":"What is godly sorrow and how can a wheelchair-bound person be baptized?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 6, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I plan to be baptized as soon as I feel that I have properly obeyed the prerequisite commands to baptism: Hear the gospel, believe the gospel, repent of past sins, confess that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of\u00a0 God, and after being baptized remaining faithful until death. Which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":54747,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-repentance-is-not\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":2},"title":"What Repentance Is Not","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"by Joe R. Price via\u00a0The Spirit's Sword, 2009 The verb translated \"repent\" in the New Testament (metanoeo) literally means \"to perceive afterward\"; so repent means \"to change one's mind or purpose\" (Thayer). God commands all men everywhere to repent of their sins (Acts 17:30). That is, God commands a change\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22145,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/must-i-ask-forgiveness-from-the-person-i-wronged-before-i-can-repent\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":3},"title":"Must I ask forgiveness from the person I wronged before I can repent?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 11, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Must I ask for forgiveness from one who suffered the consequence of my sin before I can repent? This only seems logical to me. A person should first seek to heal a fellow human who has been hurt by them. Please\u00a0email\u00a0me\u00a0something\u00a0brief\u00a0about\u00a0this as I\u00a0am\u00a0in anguish. Answer: \"For godly sorrow produces\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18068,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-does-repentance-take-place\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":4},"title":"When does repentance take place?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 4, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I once doubted the death, burial, and resurrection part of my baptism. I have cleared my conscience on that part. I came to realize that I knew what I was doing on that part. For some reason, I have started doubting my repentance before baptism. I knew before I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36478,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/i-was-serving-the-lord-until-recently-when-i-slept-with-a-girl-now-i-feel-trapped-in-sin-how-do-i-stop-this\/","url_meta":{"origin":20140,"position":5},"title":"I was serving the Lord until recently when I slept with a girl. Now I feel trapped in sin. How do I stop this?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I do not know where to start with this, but I am a born-again Christian. I have been serving the Lord for five years until I slept with a girl recently. I am not married to her. We are just girlfriend and boyfriend. This is not right. I feel\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}