Posts tagged bitterness

Here’s what we’ve discovered from the New Testament so far. I’ll just rehearse the principles, not the passages. But it’s important to remember that these …

As a Christian, am I obligated to forgive everyone who sins against me? Do I forgive only if the offender asks me to? What do I do if he never asks forgiveness?

All this came up while my daughter was counseling at a Christian camp this summer. One of her campers (“Anna”) asked her whether she was obligated to forgive her father for being verbally abusive to her, even if he never apologized for his behavior. See, someone else had told her that she needed to, and she wanted to know if that was right.

My sense of offended “justice” often rationalizes my resentment, allowing it to masquerade under the guise of righteousness. So how can I recognize the defiling infection of resentment and eradicate its stubborn root? Recovery from resentment begins not with another’s repentance, but with my own.