Would you feel inclined to forgive someone who kicked you in the shin, said "it's okay if I apologise, so I'm sorry", kicked you in the shin again, saying "it's okay if I apologise"?
Of course not, you'd think he's a dick. People aren't sorry if they're not trying to do things differently afterwards.
I'm up waaay too late but real quick, hope this makes sense...
What if they're actually sorry, but they have a poisonous ingrained behavior (like wrath in that case, or maybe gluttony or sloth). They keep trying to reform, and are honestly sorry that their sin is hurting others.
I think what I was trying to say is that there's a huge difference between support, and enabling. Personally, if I'm slipping into one of my self-destructive behaviors, I don't want forgiveness until I manage to fight it off. Having help is important, but premature unconditional forgiveness is unhelpful... removes the incentive. Enables the behavior. Can twist a good relationship into an abusive one.
I've been an enabler, and the enabled, and maybe that's part of why I'm leery of the concept. Nothing good comes out of it.
Of course I'm sure Christians don't see it as Jesus enabling them. It just looks pretty similar to me right now.
For example, a big part of Jesus's teaching was that the magnitude of sin doesn't matter when it comes to forgiveness. Feeling any lust makes you an adulterer, feeling any hate makes you a murderer. No one can reach heaven without Jesus's forgiveness, which no one deserves.
Obviously Christians still have normal consciences which make them feel worse about heavier sins (or actually acting on it)... It's just a bit eerie to me that the NT really downplays that.
Of course a Christian needs to try not to avoid sin, or else they're not actually regretful. I just don't see any religious incentive to try hard, though, and a lot of self-described Christians don't either. A moment's doubt before the act counts as being sorry.
I'm sorry if this doesn't make any sense, or if it's unintentionally offensive. I'm just sleepy.
[6 new replies] uh oh- oh good it's fine, I just typed long. [1 new reply]