Forgiveness

[Lambano]

How do we love our enemies?

Verrrrrryyyyy carefully.

 

[Triumph1300]

When we forgive people it does not mean we have to socialize with them and become friends.
And we don;'t have to justify their behaviour.
It means "forgive" and "move on" and "let go of hard feelings".
Sometimes people think that forgiving means becoming close friends all of a sudden.

 

[Lambano]

One of the things "forgiveness" means is letting go of the urge to WRING THEIR FREAKIN' NECKS!

 

[Sister-n-Christ]

We are told by Jesus, to forgive, as we are forgiven.
He also said that forgiveness is to be from the heart.

So, how do we forgive?

How do we love our enemies?

As for forgiveness, forgiving those who wrong you isn't forgetting what you suffered.

Forgiving them frees you to remember but without hatred in your heart.
If you continue to hate your enemy after their offense,you continue to be assaulted by that recurring memory. And they then continue to take your life from healing and joy back to resentment and malice.

Let it go. What they are who did that evil thing is what lives within them. And what they live with and as.

While you have a choice. Be a perpetual victim. Or, a victorious healed thriving survivor.

And boy will that tick them off .

 

[Seeding Loving]

forgiveness is something that many people have different feelings about

and the very meaning of Forgiveness has different meanings and effects of different people and different situations.

 

[ProDeo]

This is a good question. It's not cut-and-dried.

The Greek word for "to forgive" is ἀφίημι, "aphiemi", which literally means "to send away" or "to let go". When used of a financial debt, it means exactly that, to let it go with no expectation of repayment. The same concept applies to interpersonal relationships, and Jesus often used the debt model in His parables.

One of the books I read defined "forgiveness" is the attitude that the offense will not stand in the way of restoring the relationship. The restoration of a busted relationship, reconciliation, is a separate (but related) topic.

But it's not cut-and-dried. I don't see how you can have relationships without setting boundaries, and how do you have a continued relationship with someone who continuously violates boundaries?. Sometimes reconciliation is not possible unless the offending person changes their behavior.

What your president JFK once said, forgive your enemies but never forget their name.

 

[Triumph1300]

And boy will that tick them off

That should not be the goal, I would think....

 

[Sister-n-Christ]

That should not be the goal, I would think....

Obviously not. However for them,it is an inevitability.

 

[TLHKAJ]

That should not be the goal, I would think....

That's what I was coming back to say (after reading, then cooking and eating a 20oz skirt steak, lol). If our motive is to tick them off, the we most likely have not actually forgiven and let them go.

 

[quietthinker]

We are told by Jesus, to forgive, as we are forgiven.
He also said that forgiveness is to be from the heart.

So, how do we forgive?

How do we love our enemies?

Being able to forgive is the result of understanding ones own forgiveness.
He/she who loves little has the perception of being forgiven little; he/she who loves much understands much has been forgiven him/her.

 

[Nancy]

This is a good question. It's not cut-and-dried.

The Greek word for "to forgive" is ἀφίημι, "aphiemi", which literally means "to send away" or "to let go". When used of a financial debt, it means exactly that, to let it go with no expectation of repayment. The same concept applies to interpersonal relationships, and Jesus often used the debt model in His parables.

One of the books I read defined "forgiveness" is the attitude that the offense will not stand in the way of restoring the relationship. The restoration of a busted relationship, reconciliation, is a separate (but related) topic.

But it's not cut-and-dried. I don't see how you can have relationships without setting boundaries, and how do you have a continued relationship with someone who continuously violates boundaries?. Sometimes reconciliation is not possible unless the offending person changes their behavior.

Thanks Lamb! I agree brother.

 

[Lambano]

Thanks Lamb! I agree brother.

Thanks, Sis, but I'm not sure I even agree with my own append.

Our own sinfulness may be deeper than we realize. It may well be that we can never fully repent of our sin in this life. And God's own grace and forgiveness (which is, in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, the model which Jesus challenges us to apply in our own relationships) may be far greater than we can fully comprehend.

So, we are challenged to forgive others' relatively small debts to us without their full repentance, as God has forgiven our own unpayable debt. And I don't know how we can do that without allowing others to walk all over us.

“Cheer up! You're a worse sinner than you ever dared imagine, and you're more loved than you ever dared hope.”​

― Jack Miller

(Note: The last time posted Mr. Miller's quote, I got a lot of frowny-faces.)