Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
What are the teachings of Jesus Christ on forgiveness
Beliefs about forgiveness
Christian beliefs about forgiveness
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Justice and Forgiveness for Christians
Christians follow simple guidelines to help them get through some of
life's problems. One of the most important is to "love your enemy",
which Jesus taught in " Sermon on the Mount", that way you learn to
forgive people for doing any wrong to you. Christians take these
teachings very seriously, because Jesus taught it to them and they
believe that if they don't forgive others, then God will not forgive
them. That's kike in a parable of "The Unmerciful Servant", the king
forgave his servant but when he found out that he was being
unforgiving to another servant he threw him in prison. It isn't very
easy to follow the rules even for a Christian because if someone does
something horrible to you, you would want to return the insult and
hurt them. If they find it hard to forgive they often pray to God to
give them strength to do it. An example of a Christian who has lived
out Jesus' teachings and forgiveness and love of enemy is Corrie Ten
Boom, when she forgave the people who killed her sister and an
ex-guard at the concentration camp during the Second World War. When
Peter asked Jesus about the number of times he should forgive people,
Jesus said that you should keep on forgiving non-stop. Even if someone
does something that is really wrong then you should still be willing
to forgive. However Christians still believe that the offender should
get a just punishment for their crime.
Christians believe that punishment and forgiveness should go together
because as the state punishes the wrong doer the Christian should also
forgive them at the same time. Christians believe that some criminals
were forced to commit the crimes they did because they were brought up
that way or they might be drug addicts and so Christians want to
understand the causes of their crimes and help them reform so they can
lead a better life. Jesus also taught not to take revenge, because
that's hate and they were taught to love.
...their own suffering, and their own lives. It is impossible to help others if we cannot try to understand them. Lastly, the concept of forgiveness coming from understanding is relevant to everyday life. Every person makes mistakes, and everyone does things that are not proud of. If you can learn to forgive what you do yourself, you can forgive others. You have to understand a person’s reasons and their suffering, and if you do not, you will never live in peace with yourself.
At some moments justice and forgiveness are different also but for the most part they are
The Christian faith focuses on the orientation of the human heart behind human thoughts and actions. Living by faith is a beautiful alternative to the way people think of themselves and the way they live in relation to others in their daily lives (Merrick, 2014). Christians see themselves in terms of God’s profound love for them but not in terms of what they do. The teachings of the Christian faith; nonviolence, non-retaliation, inward integrity, selflessness, and love your neighbor as yourself provide the framework for ethical thinking. Although, adopting belief in Christianity can bring forth confusion in the heart and mind causing agony of learning to sacrifice one’s rightful claims for personal justice for the restoration of another (Merrick, 2014). Unconditional forgiveness is difficult to understand because spiritual forgiveness and actual costly forgiveness is viewed as the same in the gospel. If you do not forgive, then one does not have faith in God’s forgiveness as it really is. Christianity influences a person thinking and behavior developing wisdom which requires faith. The faith that is needed to reorient the heart away from selfishness to selflessness.
In “Out of the Dust,” a story told by 14-year-old Billie Jo, she describes her grief and feelings of lost hope including guilt from the accidental death of her mother and her mother’s unborn child. The accident crushed Billie Jo’s hope and her spirit, as well her father’s. It is a story of remarkable struggle where Billie Jo tries to find inner strength. She seeks the light through the Oklahoma “dust”. The “dust” is symbolic as it signifies a lack of life, dreams, and hope. Billie Jo takes the reader through her emotional of the journey that evokes compassion and empathy. The reader becomes part of the story and part of Billie Jo’s persona. Her journey embraces whom we are in the most profound sense of sadness and loss of her beloved mother. The story also guides us through the powerful enlightenment that defines the clearest explanation of the human spirit. In “Out of the Dust” Billie Jo demonstrates the power of forgiveness in herself and her father. These acts of forgiveness allowed her to move past the darkness and into the light. Her story gives the reader details on how the human spirit is philanthropic by nature and a lifelong process. “Out of the Dust” captures the essence of forgiveness including the transformations that occur during the process.
to do evil to their enemies, but to instead to them good, and to pray
Lemann’s Redemption: The Last Battle of the Civil War gives the reader an account of events, many of which are violent, just after the end of the Civil War. On the surface, Lemann spends great time documenting the violence faced by southern blacks and the life of Adelbert Ames. However, the backdrop is more complex and deals with the changing environment in the United States. Most importantly, the need of the United States needed to integrate four million former slaves into society. Lemann states the purpose of this book is to answer the question “what kinds of lives black people might live in the South now depended on the freed slaves’ organizing abilities and on the reliability of their voting rights” (xi). The subtitle, The Last Battle of the Civil War, correctly states that although the Civil War had officially ended the battle stilled raged physically, politically, and through public sentiment.
A black woman refused to give up a seat for a white man and was arrest
In Theophile Gautier's The Beautiful Vampire, he is very subtle in presenting the sins committed. Although all of the characters in this story commit various sins, the sins of Romuald are the sins primarily focused on. This sinning of Romauld is very unique in that he is a ordained priest who should be one of the last people to commit these sins. It is this reason that makes the story what it is and draws the readers in initially.
can use this to be sin free and be able to gain a place in heaven
Today, we take this parable very lightly, as we have been brought up in a culture that forgives people’s faults easily. Most people think, “Yeah, I forgive everyone who harms me.” However, if you think about it, this just isn’t true, as everyone has a couple of people they hold a grudge against, and this parable is telling us to stop holding that grudge. Forgiving is a huge part of Christian teaching and should not be taken lightly.
Forgiveness (Luke 6:37): " Do not judge others, and God will not judge you; do not condemn others, and God will not condemn you; forgive others and God will forgive you." The passage teaches us that we should forgive others and we will be forgiven. We should treat others, as we want to be treated. Jesus never judged or condemned others no matter what they did to him.
Restorative justice is concerned with healing victims' wounds, restoring offenders to law-abiding lives, and repairing harm done to interpersonal relationships and the community. It seeks to involve all stakeholders and provide opportunities for those most affected by the crime to be directly involved in the process of responding to the harm caused”. The Rwanda government has suffered a tremendous violent act in the loss of their two major ethnic groups that consisted of the Hutu and Tutsi. The large scale of mass murder caused millions of orphans and un-circumscribable agony to a country that has yet to be restored and healed. After such tragic events of rape, torture and decapitation to innocent people, the widespread of horror still is engraved in the survivors’ memory. For any individual to take any other person life is one scenario and to rape and kill a person while there family watch is another. Imagine the site and anguish given by the victim who is fighting or striving to maintain their life with all their being, while the oppressor ignores his/her cries to resolve the situation. That person is not in their right state of mind and probably does not know the purpose or the aftermath of their action. In 1994 the world witnessed one of the most systematic and vast massacre of our time in Rwanda. By the end of the massacre one million people were dead and hundreds were left with physical and psychological scars. The genocide was fueled by years of hatred between the Hutus and the Tutsis. After the genocide the Rwandan government was left with the task of designing a justice system suitable to prosecute perpetrators of the genocide and the reestablishment of peace within the country. Due to the lack of a competent judicial sys...
A strong Christian lesson on the true nature of forgiveness can be found in Christ’s Sermon on the Mount:
When I opened my yearbook, I began to reminisce about my half year of high school in China. As I flipped through the pages of the yearbook, a picture of an old man with a benevolent smile caught my eyes. Daydreaming about the incident, my eyesight became hazy, and I felt my hands becoming swollen, which always refreshes my memory of his profound words.
Forgiveness is the act of releasing an offender of any wrong or hurt they may have caused you whether they deserve it or not. It is a decision to let go of resentment or vengeance toward a person or group of people. When we choose to forgive, we’re wiping the slate clean, cancelling a debt, or as I love to say, “Letting it go.” In the Bible, the Greek word for forgiveness literally means to “let it go.” This concept, “forgiveness,” is easier said than done. Majority of people find it very difficult to let go of offenses and hurts caused by others. I really do believe that most people desire to let it go, but we lack the knowledge of how to do it. As believers, we are instructed by God maintain an attitude of forgiveness.