On Forgiveness

Forgive others everything, and forgive yourself nothing. Abba Isaiah

When you repay your neighbour for an offence, God no longer punishes him. But if you forgive, then God will either punish him or forgive you your sins.

When good is done to us, we should remember it with gratitude; and if we are treated badly, love should make us forget it.

He who remembers the malice of the demons will not remember the malice of men. But he who does not forget his brother’s offences lives at peace with the demons.

Why do you hate the person who offended you? It was not he but the devil who wounded your heart; hate not the sick man but the sickness. Amma Syncletica

Hate sins, not the sinner. Protopresbyter P. Sokolov

True Christian love consists in refraining even from just revenge and leaving it to God. “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Rom. 12:19). Protopresbyter I. Tolmachev

Receive one who comes to you in repentance as one sent by the Lord, so that you do not thereby insult and anger God Himself.

The more someone sins against us, the more we should strive to be reconciled with him, for on account of this more of our own sins are forgiven.

You should be reconciled even with an enemy if he asks you for peace. For he who does not forgive another will not escape God’s punishment.

By not forgiving you harm not so much another as yourself.

Do not say, “I will repay my enemy,” for you have a righteous Judge in heaven.

He who avenges himself as it were judges God for lacking justice.

There are many kinds of almsgiving by which we can receive from God the forgiveness of our sins, but the chief of them is forgiving in the name of the Lord.

The misfortune is not the offence but that it breeds in us hatred toward the one who offended us, and our heart comes to know the feelings of hatred, malice and revenge. Archbishop Macarius

Do not repay your neighbour for an offence, but forgive him, for you yourself need forgiveness from the Lord. Archbishop Macarius

Whoever wishes to demand strictly from his debtor, let him remember that he himself is God’s debtor. Archbishop Macarius

Forgiving offences is the indispensable condition for receiving from God forgiveness for our own sins; the second is impossible without the first. “Judge not, and ye shall not be judged” (Luke 6:37), the Lord commands. Archbishop Macarius

Forgive your neighbour a hundred mites, so that the Lord may forgive you a heap of talents.

If your neighbour has greatly offended you, the more you forgive, the more you will be forgiven by God.

Spare one another, and the Lord will spare you.

To remember an offence and pray is the same as to sow in the sea and wait for a harvest.

A strong wind scatters the clouds, and remembrance of wrongs drives good feelings out of the soul. Abba Evagrius

For the one who forgives, the judgement too will be forgiving. Abba Isaiah

If you do not forgive everyone who has sinned against you, do not weary yourself with fasting and prayer… God will not accept you.