Forgiveness is not for the Unrepentant Heart

Forgiveness is not for the unrepentant but for those who confess their wrong and desire to do differently. God said;

Luke 17:3-4 "3Watch yourselves. If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4Even if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times returns to say, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”…"

There is a good reason God requires confession and forgiveness, two sides of the same coin, both must be present. The purpose is for a relationship to be restored and for the offender to change his behavior.

If we only "say", "I forgive" without any confession of the offense, then we are selfish and unlikely to remain in a relationship in which the offender doesn't think they did anything wrong.

There must be restoration for the relationship to become even stronger. To say we forgive but the relationship remains broken then nothing has happened of value, merely words and feelings that fall to the ground without anything good coming from it.

If we love people we are willing to wait for the confession and then willing to forgive when it comes.

The whole idea of forgiveness God's way has been almost entirely lost in a culture that cares more about feeling special themselves than they are willing to do the hard work of accountability for the sake of restoration.

Feelings over substance has dominated our world causing the evil to grow and the one who requires accountability to be judged and maligned.

The perpetrator of sin is further empowered to continue in sin and even become worse as there is no responsibility to change and grow emotionally and spiritually. Because of this even the offended who say they forgive remain emotional and spiritual children pretending forgiveness without any good result.

No one is willing to do the hard work of requiring repentance, that is a change of mind leading to a change in behavior, so that everyone becomes better and the relationship is restored.

Relationships in our day are neglected in favor of momentary emotional feelings that have little if any value.

When we do things God's way we grow, the offender grows and relationships are restored or ended based on the response of the offender. It is not on us when a broken relationship cannot be mended because the offender is not sorry and even continues their offense.

We are not required to forgive those who refuse to admit their fault and we are not required to remain in a relationship in which an offender remains in their sin.

1 John 3:9 says, "No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in them".