I sincerely desire the forgiveness of those who’ve done me wrong. Like Stephen (Acts 7:60), and Christ before him (Luke 23:34), I pray that God will forgive those who have harmed me. I do not forgive them, though, unless and until they repent. This does not make me sinfully “unforgiving” (Romans 1:31; II Timothy 3:3), however, as it is repentance on which forgiveness depends.<\/p>\n
I am under command to withhold forgiveness in the absence of repentance. Jesus taught, “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him<\/em>” (Luke 17:3). “If” is a small word that carries a lot of weight. “If” my brother has not sinned, I have no business rebuking him; and “if” my brother has not repented, I have no business forgiving him.<\/p>\n I am not better than God. Forgiveness by the Almighty toward men is predicated on repentance by men. When He planned Judah’s destruction, God said, “… everyone may turn from his evil way, that I may forgive their iniquity and their sin<\/em>” (Jeremiah 36:3). That prerequisite has never been lifted; even now we know “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive<\/em>” (I John 1:9). The “if” remains. Since the Lord is “good, and ready to forgive, and abundant in mercy<\/em>” (Psalm 86:5), no man can surpass his mercifulness. So, how dare any man forgive where He will not?<\/p>\n I must not lead the wayward into a false sense of security. If I forgive where God has not, that will soothe the consciences of the guilty, letting them think the matter is resolved when it is not. “Do not be deceived<\/em>” (Galatians 6:7).<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" by Bryan Matthew Dockens I sincerely desire the forgiveness of those who’ve done me wrong. Like Stephen (Acts 7:60), and Christ before him (Luke 23:34), I pray that God will forgive those who have harmed me. I do not forgive them, though, unless and until they repent. This does not make me sinfully “unforgiving” (Romans…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","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":[27],"tags":[1571],"class_list":["post-60560","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-article","tag-forgiveness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":94933,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-not-forgive-the-unrepentant\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"position":0},"title":"Do we not forgive the unrepentant?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Does Luke 17:3 imply that we are not to forgive a brother or sister until they have repented? I know God will not forgive until we have repented and asked him for forgiveness. Answer: \"Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive\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":60416,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/three-quotes-on-forgiving-a-brother\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"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":70001,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/forgiveness-without-repentance\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"position":2},"title":"Forgiveness Without Repentance?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 1, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Mike Johnson via Seeking Things Above The Bible emphasizes the importance of forgiving those who sin against us. In fact, failing to do so is very frightening because, in Matthew 6:14-15, Jesus taught, \"For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if\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":31913,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/automatic-forgiveness\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"position":3},"title":"Automatic Forgiveness","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 11, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Robert M Hartian Sentry Magazine, June 2002 Schoolmates hung a sign on a high school in West Paducah, Kentucky that read \"we forgive you Mike!\" Mike Carmeal, 14, the day before, had killed three of his classmates. Dennis Prager, a Jew, covered this story in the Wall Street Journal\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":24049,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-we-forgive-even-though-the-elders-refuse-to-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"position":4},"title":"Do we forgive even though the elders refuse to change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 24, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: \"Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, \u2018I repent,\u2019 you shall forgive him\" (Luke 17:3-4). After reading\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":87679,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-unconditional-forgiveness-only-required-for-unbelievers\/","url_meta":{"origin":60560,"position":5},"title":"Is unconditional forgiveness only required for unbelievers?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 10, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Brother Jeff, I would appreciate your input on this question. We understand from Luke 17:3 and Ephesians 4:32 that forgiveness is conditioned upon repentance. But is this only applicable in situations where the offender is a Christian (brother in Christ) like yourself? In other words, is forgiveness conditional only\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\/60560","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=60560"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60560\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=60560"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=60560"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=60560"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}