Luke 17:3-4 "…3 Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
All forgiveness must be preceded by repentance.
We desire that relationships be reconciled but they can only be so if someone is sorry and someone forgives.
Believers have forgiveness in their hearts all the time, in order to pass it to the offender there must be a desire to have changed behavior and the realization that someone was harmed.
God tells us to avoid an angry man, this is a command that we cannot walk with those who continually offend without ever thinking they did anything wrong. Those who justify their sin cannot be forgiven.
Galatians 5:19-21
"Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God."
Proverbs 13:20
"Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise, but the companion of fools will suffer harm."
1 Corinthians 15:33
"Do not be deceived: “Bad company ruins good morals.”
When we make foolish people are constant companions we will become like them or at the very least we will enable them to stay as they are without guilt about their behavior or attitude.
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