We believe in being honest, true, chaste, benevolent, virtuous, and in doing good to all men; in deed, we may say that we follow the admonition of Paul ... if there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy, we seek after these things.

Friday, August 1, 2014

More about forgiving the un-repentant



Today I want to talk a little more about forgiveness. As I mentioned yesterday I seem to have a standing misunderstanding with certain people. I truly do not understand if they go out of their way to disagree with me or if I just perceive it that way. The one thing I do understand is that I am the only person who can change me and they are the only person who can change them. There are lots of ways I can be wrong and in need of repentance and those I accept and repent of. But to have someone get up in my face and shout at me that it’s all my fault when they know they consciously made a decision to go against legal and moral laws and then tell me it’s my fault… I refuse to accept the blame or the guilt they are passing out.  Lord forgive me, but I had a good laugh over the entire thing.
This individual is not going to repent, not for a long time anyway, and according to the scripture I gave yesterday I don’t have to forgive them. (Luke 17:3)  I do however pray for them, and in dealing with them I consider the source. I understand they don’t want the embarrassment, nor the responsibility of their actions, and I love them anyway, but there is no way that I am going to accept guilt for them. When they had had a chance to cool off I reminded them of the choice they made that precipitated the hardship. I was told that it is none of my business what they do. That produced another good laugh in private. True we each have our agencies to do as we please, but in doing so we also reap the consequences of our actions, good or bad. Those consequences always, always affect other people for better or worse.

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