Friday, 18 November 2011
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Will God Punish Those Who Hurt Me?
By AmyWill God punish those who have hurt you? Yes, for it is promised.
But if they repent you must forgive them, for it is also written in the Bible.For these so-called Christians who say you must forgive those who aren't repentant and refuse to change, and love and enable those who do evil, they are not speaking God's word. Nowhere in the Bible states that you must forgive an unrepentant sinner.
forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. (Matthew 6:12)
Everyone knows and it is written God forgives us when we repent, and so should you be when those who hurt you ask for your forgiveness and truly repent. Even if they ask you infinitely for an infinite number of crimes, then and only then You must forgive them.If they are unrepentant, God will punish them and vindicate you for He is a God of justice and plays no favorites. But what does this mean?
Many false Christians believe that for God to punish or for you to pray for vindication is unloving -- but actually it isn't. A loving parent teaches his children, and sometimes that involves punishment.
If your son doesn't heed your word and would rather take drugs, rob people and hurt others than do what is right and go to school, would the loving parent say nothing? Would he look the other way while his son spirals into destruction? No. He would enforce punishment and harsh consequences, so that the son will be encouraged to change his ways. Even if as a child he cannot see or know what he has done in the now. You being the wiser will know that by doing this you have spared him a future of Hell being addicted to drugs or serving life in jail and when he is wiser he will later realize it too.
But If the son comes to you before this outcome and begs for forgiveness, sees and is disgusted by his actions and therefore swears off his behavior forever, then of course a loving parent will not only be overjoyed, punishment will be unnecessary.
If you broke the law, raped a woman or killed a man -- whether you were repentant or not -- you will face jail, because law is law, and God's law states the penalty for sin is death.
Imagine after your son has tearfully repented, you had to go forth and kill him.
But that's how it was, and God couldn't go against his own law, because God cannot lie nor break his promises. He is God, but he loved us so much he sent a pure and holy of human beings, he sent Jesus to pay the price.Jesus died on the cross so that repentant sins would be forgiven and punishment can be avoided.
God doesn't want us to die, but God is just -- so being loving, it's God's first choice for those who do wrong to repent.
But don't be fooled. God knows each and everyone of our hearts, even the most evil of murderers and child abusers. He knows who is truly repentant and who isn't. God will not be mocked.
And if in their heart they are not truly repentant, don't worry. God will punish; otherwise they will face infinite suffering on judgement day, which is a horror nobody should wish on anyone.
So please pray for vindication, for it is better for God to punish in this life so that the unrepentant becomes truly repentant and is therefore forgiven, than for God to say nothing and wait till judgement day and have them perish forever.
So do not become bitter, do not hold grudge against them. Love them, for either way, they wont be let off the hook. Do good to them, and speak well of them. Do not repay evil for evil; leave it for God to repay either through their punishment or through their repentance so that they will not have to suffer for eternity after judgment day.
Do you think that God only forgives repentant sins? If that's the case, are we only supposed to forgive those who repent?
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Comments (11)
Human beings must never try to judge like God judges. So whether someone repents is none of our business. We forgive them 7 x 7 times which is Bible-speak for however many times it is necessary.
Jesus commanded us to love our enemies. My enemy is a person or people who are disposed to purposefully cause me harm. I don't have to enable or put up with being hurt, but I must forgive my enemies.
"Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord." -Hebrews 12:14
I guess it depends on what you mean by forgive. God does not forgive our sin unless it was placed on Christ at the cross. But I see the Bible overwhelmingly advocate that we forgive others regardless. You quoted the Lord's prayer. I see it saying that we forgive those who trespass against us. Period. Thank you :)
I've been betrayed by my ex-best friends, who are also Christians. I always felt guilty about wanting them to be punished, (though I still do) and I've been praying blessings on them, for the Bible does say to bless those who hurt us. I've also been praying for them to have their eyes opened and see that what they did was wrong. So it's not wrong to pray that they'll be punished?
No, God doesn't punish those who are mean to us or hurt us. I think everyday life does that (what goes around comes around).
Besides that, what if you are an easily offended person? Should we expect vindication for things that weren't wrong but we got hurt over? I think that there is a lot more grace extended to each of us in our daily lives because it is impossible to live our whole lives and never offend or hurt someone else.Even if we don't mean to do it on purpose.
"If you broke the law, raped a woman or killed a man...you will face jail, because law is law, and God's law states the penalty for sin is death."
And if I rape a man? Or kill a woman? :P
Sorry, sorry, just had to say it...
But seriously, to be honest, all this sounds wrong. Not biblically wrong--emotionally wrong. No offense, but I wouldn't want to worship a God who willingly rains down suffering on people's heads. The way I see it, almost all humans can be forgiven because they're just that: human. They can't help it, to an extent. Sure, they made choices, but every one of 'em was disadvantaged from the start, so how can you judge and punish so freely? If I were God (dare I say it), I'd sigh and either vaporize or save all of humanity. As it is, with eternal fates and infinite happiness/torment at stake, it's hard for me to trust that God follows the human theory of justice, let alone a humanistic take on it. Like I often say...Yes, parents discipline and even hurt their children, all in love and for their ultimate good (think of the mother that shoves her son out of the path of a car, bruising him) but no parent would treat their children as the God of the Bible treats His--inflicting them with terrors, plagues, sorrow, torturous pain, and death (how's that for a pointless reprimand?) in ensuring that they are faithful (if you say His children are the Israelites or Christians) or at least aware of His sovereignty (if you say all peoples are His children, including pagan kingdoms). I think we can all agree that a good parent disciples their child. Few of us would say that a good parent beats their child.
What I find interesting about this article is that the scripture used to support the idea that we should not forgive anyone who has not already repented is that the scripture doesn't seem to indicate whether or not the trespasser is a repentant trespasser The passage is part of a prayer prayer which clearly involves the commitment to forgiving others who trespass/sin. Whether or not repentance has occurred seems irrelevant. The person sins against us and our reaction is to forgive that trespass. nowhere in scripture do we see the teaching that we should or must reserve forgiveness for those who seek it. We are not to forgive those who earn it with repentance but gift is just as God gifted it to us through Christ Jesus. Forgiveness is part of the invitation to repentance.
Our challenge is to forgive sinners just as Christ did as he was being nailed to the cross. While we were enemies Christ died for us. The Father sent the son to reconcile the sinner. Nowhere in scripture do we see the teaching that we withhold forgiveness until certain action is taken by the sinner. Instead we are told to forgive those who sin against us because we've been forgiven. We forgive because of Christ not because of the sinner. We're to be a people of forgiveness and love even if others who are against us don't ask for it.
@apb102088@xanga - Luke 17:3-4, "If
your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins
against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I
repent,' forgive him.
@la_lune_du_chasseur@xanga - Where in the article does she mention that god beats Christians or rains plagues, terrors, sorrows or torturous pain and death on them. The bible says the penalty for sin is death, which is why, while we are on earth we must make use of this time to repent of our sins and do what is right in the name of the lord with the help of the holy spirit.
@Whatsthat@momaroo
- I'm sure it isn't a sin to hurt someones feelings, even when Jesus brought the truth I'm sure it must of offended a few people. I think this author was talking about real sins- to steal, to lie, to bear false witness, etc. Its kind of hard to do these things by accident.
If you forgive them, they can't really hurt you.....
@AngelAsh_86@xanga -
The "blessing" that God wants us to
'pray "for" (i.e. in regards to) our enemies'
.. is the 'blessing' of God's word --
which will lead them to repentance.
.
The "blessing" is not that of 'material' things
(ex. wealth, health, security, etc.) -- as often,
it is these material things that led them
into their pride-base unrighteousness.
this article is on point and is scripturally sound.
Dear writer (of article) the reason why most people subscribe to the un-scriptural view of God says to forgive regardless is because these same people (though they don't out-rightly sin) want to leave room for when they happen to clearly sin and go against what God clearly teaches e.g. adultery, fornication. This same people who disagree with your article will be the first to say "God has nailed all their past, present and future sins to the cross"
So dear writer of the article you speak TRUTH but remember the truth is a stumbling block for most (including majority of Christians).
God does not and will never forgive unrepentant sinners e.g. the prodigal son (who is a Christian by the way e.g. meaning he wilfully asked for his inheritance so he could go live a wanton life) was never forgiven till he went back (on his own accord) to his father and:
1) realised he had sinned against God hence asked God for forgiveness
2) realised he sinned against his father hence asked him for forgiveness
3) realised that it wouldnt be right and didnt expect to be restored to the position of a son any more e.g. he was sober, felt guilt and pain for his doings/actions (not worldly sorrw, which is what most christian feel when they sin) by not trying to defend himself. This is the bridge where majority of Christians fail to cross has they expect just because they have asked for forgiveness things should go back to as they where before the committed the grievous sin
4) It was his father who decided to restore him back to the position of his son and not has a servant but the key here is that the father DID NOT RESTORE BACK TO HIM HIS INHERITANCE. It all belonged to the other son now.
Many times have come across (too numerous to count) e.g. Christians in the church (pastors, deacons, long serving members) who have left their spouses or divorced their spouses to be with another and most of the time the two offenders then in their own personal time ask God for forgiveness (or ask the left spouse or church for forgiveness) and believe they are forgiven while still in their adulterous relationship. And not realising THEY HAVE BEEN SHUT OFF FROM THE KINGDOM OF GOD WITHOUT REALISING IT. But unfortunately these same people are very active members of the church, good people and probably wont purposely sin any more. But that one grievous violent sin SHUTS THEM OUT FROM ETERNITY AND THE KINGDOM OF GOD. E.g Moses (who the bible recorded was the meekest) was shut off from the promised land just for striking the rock 3 times instead of once.
REPENTANCE always PRECEDES FORGIVENESS and not the other way round.