Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Attitudal and Transactional forgiveness?

Is there such a thing as attitudal forgiveness and transactional forgiveness?

Possible Attitudal Forgiveness:
"“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions." (Mark 11:25)

Possible Transactional Forgiveness:
"“Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him." (Luke 17:3)

2 comments:

Ben said...

Can you define them more specifically? These two passages could be two "generalities" remarked on the same issue (as in Prov. 26:4-5).

It's not necessarily a "Commandment 1: Whenever you stand praying, forgive; Commandment 2: If your brother repents, forgive him" kind of a situation. It could just be "these are both things you should be doing".

Danny Slavich said...

I think there is a biblical precedent for what you are describing. Namely, we must have a forgiving "attitude", even if we are not given the opportunity to "transactionally" forgive them. And, obviously, if we are asked for forgiveness, we are to give it.