Forgiveness or justice?

[paigetheoracle]

To forgive, is to release your hold on a belief and move on. To seek justice is to tie yourself down in revenge. These are the only two choices we have in life - the political or the religious answer (The bombers and war mongers on one side, baying for each others blood (stuck in the past)and the peacemakers on the other side, accepting failure and loss, and getting on with the rest of their lives from this moment on). Denying you've failed leads to to blame and vengeance seeking - accepting it, leads to mourning your loss.

 

This is the choice we have - to open up to everything, good or bad or shut up and shut down (censor input/ crush output): No pain, no pleasure - no sensation of any kind i.e. depression and retreating from life or hiding inside versus stepping out into the cold light of day and accepting whatever it fires at you (pleasure is release/ pain is binding); blue pill or red? The more you notice, the more hyper (aware/ inspired) you become. The more you ignore, the duller your perception becomes (A prisoner of conscience/ consciousness).

 

Cowardice is fear of being overwhelmed by your senses/ emotions as laziness is fear of being overwhelmed by the urge to act/ think (intellectual versus emotional lives). The saddest thing in the world is loss of trust, when our fears get the better of us and we act inappropriately, destroying the bonds we had with others and our hopes for the future in relation to them.

[dduckwessel]

To forgive, is to release your hold on a belief and move on. To seek justice is to tie yourself down in revenge. These are the only two choices we have in life - the political or the religious answer (The bombers and war mongers on one side, baying for each others blood (stuck in the past)and the peacemakers on the other side, accepting failure and loss, and getting on with the rest of their lives from this moment on). Denying you've failed leads to to blame and vengeance seeking - accepting it, leads to mourning your loss.

 

"If your brother sins against you, rebuke him and if he repents, forgive him." (Luke 17:3)

 

The forgiveness only comes if he says he's sorry!

 

Especially in matters where a real wrong had been committed, it would be nothing short of idocy to forgive someone.

[sanctus]

But you can also forgive some1 who does not repent without being "nothing short of idocy". For instance by understanding why someone acted that way...

[Moontanman]

Forgiveness or justice? How can you have justice with no forgiveness? At one time I held on to a lot of hatred for a couple of people who had wronged me in my life, the hatred felt good, it was good to reach inside and feel that hatred once in a while, it was like an old companion, but once I gave it up i realized the good feeling was false and forgiveness felt so very much better. Without forgiveness neither the person wronged nor the person who perpetuated the indiscretion to begin with can find justice IMHO but one thing for sure hatred only hurts the person who holds it in.

 

Of course there are cases where forgiveness is best done from a distance with a wall between you because the person you are forgiving is a psychopath and cannot be trusted....

[dduckwessel]

Forgiveness or justice? How can you have justice with no forgiveness? At one time I held on to a lot of hatred for a couple of people who had wronged me in my life, the hatred felt good, it was good to reach inside and feel that hatred once in a while, it was like an old companion, but once I gave it up i realized the good feeling was false and forgiveness felt so very much better. Without forgiveness neither the person wronged nor the person who perpetuated the indiscretion to begin with can find justice IMHO but one thing for sure hatred only hurts the person who holds it in.

 

Of course there are cases where forgiveness is best done from a distance with a wall between you because the person you are forgiving is a psychopath and cannot be trusted....

 

Yes, the dark side gets hold of all of us at times and you're right bitterness can poison but I wasn't speaking about minor offences or bitterness. I'm speaking of right and wrong. If someone steals from me I have the right not to trust them - ever - unless they try to make things right, which must come in the form of returning what was stolen, with interest.

 

I was just clarifying what the Bible said because Christians believe they must forgive every offence and not make the offender accountable for wrong actions, and then they must turn around and actually trust that person again. It's wrong because we're not built that way and God never commanded it in the first place.

 

I heard a story where a young guy brutally killed another guy his same age. The Christian father felt compelled soon after to show forgiveness to the murderer and took him into his own house and made him his son. Christians ooo and ahh over these kinds of stories as if God just appeared on earth but I felt sick.

 

I'm not saying that the father couldn't eventually forgive but to expect it of him and so soon after his son's death is just wrong. After losing someone we care about there is always a period of great anger and the father was denied his right to grieve.

 

You can get better justice in a court.

 

I know that's an extreme example but I merely wanted to show that God does not command carte-blanche forgiveness.