What Does the Bible Say About True Forgiveness?

1 Peter 3:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes

Do not repay evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary, bless, for to this you were called, that you may obtain a blessing.

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 5 helpful votes

I can do all things through him who strengthens me.

Acts 2:38 ESV / 5 helpful votes

And Peter said to them, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 5 helpful votes

At that time the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?” And calling to him a child, he put him in the midst of them and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. “Whoever receives one such child in my name receives me, ...

Matthew 6:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes

But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

Romans 13:8-10 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, “You shall not commit adultery, You shall not murder, You shall not steal, You shall not covet,” and any other commandment, are summed up in this word: “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” Love does no wrong to a neighbor; therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.

Luke 17:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him,

Matthew 18:21-22 ESV / 4 helpful votes

Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Isaiah 43:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes

“I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.

1 John 1:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes

If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Fathers, do not provoke your children to anger, but bring them up in the discipline and instruction of the Lord.

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes

Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.

Luke 23:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” And they cast lots to divide his garments.

Mark 11:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also who is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes

For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

Matthew 6:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes

And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.

Revelation 22:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

Revelation 21:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.” And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” ...

Titus 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And so train the young women to love their husbands and children,

Philippians 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.

Acts 22:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And now why do you wait? Rise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on his name.’

Acts 17:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

Acts 7:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

He dealt shrewdly with our race and forced our fathers to expose their infants, so that they would not be kept alive.

John 8:16-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone who judge, but I and the Father who sent me. In your Law it is written that the testimony of two people is true. I am the one who bears witness about myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness about me.”

Luke 12:42-46 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And the Lord said, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time? Blessed is that servant whom his master will find so doing when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions. But if that servant says to himself, ‘My master is delayed in coming,’ and begins to beat the male and female servants, and to eat and drink and get drunk, the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and put him with the unfaithful.

Luke 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.

Luke 2:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”

Luke 2:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

Luke 1:60 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”

Luke 1:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For behold, when the sound of your greeting came to my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy.

Luke 1:43 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?

Luke 1:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit,

Luke 1:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And behold, your relative Elizabeth in her old age has also conceived a son, and this is the sixth month with her who was called barren.

Luke 1:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus.

Luke 1:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes

But the angel said to him, “Do not be afraid, Zechariah, for your prayer has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John.

Mark 16:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.

Mark 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent and believe in the gospel.”

Matthew 15:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes

These are what defile a person. But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile anyone.”

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes

For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander.

Matthew 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then Herod, when he saw that he had been tricked by the wise men, became furious, and he sent and killed all the male children in Bethlehem and in all that region who were two years old or under, according to the time that he had ascertained from the wise men.

Matthew 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means, God with us).

Joel 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber.

Hosea 13:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Samaria shall bear her guilt, because she has rebelled against her God; they shall fall by the sword; their little ones shall be dashed in pieces, and their pregnant women ripped open.

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

Proverbs 6:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.

Psalm 128:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord.

Psalm 128:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Your wife will be like a fruitful vine within your house; your children will be like olive shoots around your table. Behold, thus shall the man be blessed who fears the Lord. The Lord bless you from Zion! May you see the prosperity of Jerusalem all the days of your life!

Psalm 127:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 8:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes, to still the enemy and the avenger.

Job 10:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Are your days as the days of man, or your years as a man's years,

Job 4:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes

‘Can mortal man be in the right before God? Can a man be pure before his Maker?

Job 3:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Why is light given to a man whose way is hidden, whom God has hedged in?

Job 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Or why was I not as a hidden stillborn child, as infants who never see the light?

Job 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“Let the day perish on which I was born, and the night that said, ‘A man is conceived.’

2 Kings 8:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Hazael said, “Why does my lord weep?” He answered, “Because I know the evil that you will do to the people of Israel. You will set on fire their fortresses, and you will kill their young men with the sword and dash in pieces their little ones and rip open their pregnant women.”

Deuteronomy 27:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“‘Cursed be anyone who takes a bribe to shed innocent blood.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Numbers 12:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother's womb.”

Exodus 23:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Keep far from a false charge, and do not kill the innocent and righteous, for I will not acquit the wicked.

Exodus 21:22-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes

“When men strive together and hit a pregnant woman, so that her children come out, but there is no harm, the one who hit her shall surely be fined, as the woman's husband shall impose on him, and he shall pay as the judges determine. But if there is harm, then you shall pay life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe.

Genesis 25:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes

The children struggled together within her, and she said, “If it is thus, why is this happening to me?” So she went to inquire of the Lord.

Genesis 25:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes

And Isaac prayed to the Lord for his wife, because she was barren. And the Lord granted his prayer, and Rebekah his wife conceived.

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

68 Bible Verses about True Forgiveness

1 Peter 3:9 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 4:13 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 2:38 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:1-35 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:15 ESV / 5 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Colossians 3:12-13 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Romans 13:8-10 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 17:3 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 18:21-22 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Isaiah 43:25 ESV / 4 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 John 1:9 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 6:4 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:32 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Ephesians 4:31-32 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

1 Corinthians 13:4-7 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 23:34 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 11:25 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:14-15 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 6:12 ESV / 3 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 22:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 21:8 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Revelation 21:1-27 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Titus 2:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Philippians 4:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 22:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 17:30 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Acts 7:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

John 8:16-18 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 12:42-46 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 2:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 2:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:60 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:44 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:43 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:41 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:36 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:31 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Luke 1:13 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 16:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Mark 1:15 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 15:20 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 15:19 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Matthew 1:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Joel 2:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Hosea 13:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 22:6 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 6:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Proverbs 3:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 128:4 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 128:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 127:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 127:3-5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Psalm 8:2 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 10:5 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 4:17 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 3:23 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 3:16 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Job 3:3 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

2 Kings 8:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Deuteronomy 27:25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Numbers 12:12 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 23:7 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Exodus 21:22-25 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 25:22 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 25:21 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

Genesis 1:26 ESV / 2 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful

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