Hello,<\/p>\n
A coworker asked for my forgiveness, but because the moment was awkward, I didn\u2019t say \u201cI forgive you.\u201d There\u2019s a good chance that I have a form of OCD, and I get stuck on little things like this. I went out of my way to be nice to him, and I never mentioned what happened to anybody. Now I\u2019m caught up in the fact that I didn\u2019t really rebuke him or encourage him to be more godly after the fact. I feel like I didn\u2019t do enough, and I know we\u2019re not supposed to go by feelings, but it still bothers me.<\/p>\n\t
You seem to be trying to turn the teachings of Christ into a set of rituals to be done, instead of understanding what is being required of you.<\/p>\n
When there is a disagreement between two people, the goal is to settle the matter as quickly as possible. Matters left unresolved have a strong tendency to blow up and get worse. “Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent<\/em>” (Matthew 5:25-26).<\/p>\n Unfortunately, the person who did you wrong either is unaware he did something wrong, didn’t think it mattered or doesn’t care. The reason you need to bring up the problem and explain why it was wrong is to hopefully change his mind about the matter. When he does change, then you can offer him forgiveness so that the matter is resolved. “If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him<\/em>” (Luke 17:3).<\/p>\n In your case, the person realized he was wrong before you brought up the matter to him and he apologized. You forgave him and, thus, the conflict is now ended. There was no need for a rebuke because he already changed.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello, A coworker asked for my forgiveness, but because the moment was awkward, I didn\u2019t say \u201cI forgive you.\u201d There\u2019s a good chance that I have a form of OCD, and I get stuck on little things like this. I went out of my way to be nice to him, and I never mentioned…<\/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,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[1571,1598],"class_list":["post-4714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-forgiveness","tag-rebukes"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":34509,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/does-a-person-have-to-repent-and-ask-for-forgiveness-before-you-can-forgive-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":0},"title":"Does a person have to repent and ask for forgiveness before you can forgive him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"August 27, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I trawled through the topics on questions but can't find one that I want to ask. My sister and I are Christians. She says that she doesn't have to forgive a person unless they come to her and ask for forgiveness. she tells me that nobody got forgiveness from\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":60416,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-quotes-on-forgiving-a-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":1},"title":"Three Quotes on Forgiving a Brother","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 20, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"From Questions Answered, Lipscomb and Sewell, Kurfees, pg. 260 Question: If a brother in the church offends us, is it right for us to forgive him whether he comes and asks us to or not, or must we hold it against him until he comes and asks our pardon? Would\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":31399,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/my-husband-left-me-for-another-woman-do-i-have-to-forgive-him\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":2},"title":"My husband left me for another woman. Do I have to forgive him?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 21, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: My husband left me for another woman. After returning back from an overseas assignment, we got into an argument which left me hospitalized.\u00a0 \u00a0We are both saved Christians (he was saved in our marriage). Even though he says that he didn't leave his kids but the marriage and me.\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":41404,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-i-need-to-tell-my-husband-about-my-sinful-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":3},"title":"Do I need to tell my husband about my sinful past?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 27, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I am married, and I wanted to know if I need to tell my husband all my past sexual sins before we met. I was baptized this year and I'm realizing a lot of things I used to do were very sinful. I'm feeling overwhelmed. I didn't grow\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":31349,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/if-a-brother-had-an-affair-for-five-years-and-says-he-repented-should-he-be-used-in-service-to-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":4},"title":"If a brother had an affair for five years and says he repented, should he be used in service to God?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 16, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: A brother had a five-year affair. His wife didn't know about the affair. He says he has repented. Can he work in the worship service and be one of the spiritual leaders? What does he need to do? Answer: \"If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just\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":37851,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-wasnt-satan-and-his-angels-offered-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":4714,"position":5},"title":"Why wasn’t Satan and his angels offered forgiveness?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 17, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I just stumbled into your website. I have a question. God commands us to forgive and this I accept but my question is: Why did God not forgive Lucifer, the devil? We need to follow the examples of God. Is there a reason why God refused to forgive\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\/4714","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=4714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4714\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}