5 Bible Verses About Forgiving Others who Hurt You (With Reflections)
Forgiving others can be really hard sometimes. Overcoming grudges, hurt, anger, pain, etc. often takes time. However, here are 5 Bible verses about forgiving others who hurt you that’ll help you on your journey of letting go, as God desires.
Pin this article to your Pinterest for later!
Bible Verses About Forgiving Others who Hurt You
1. Ephesians 4:31-32 (A beautiful Bible verse about forgiving others as we let go of hurtful conflicts)
Get rid of all bitterness, rage, anger, harsh words, and slander, as well as all types of evil behavior. Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.
With every conflict comes our free will.
On one hand, we can choose to keep arguing, holding onto negative feelings towards people whom we disagree with.
Yet, on the other hand, we can also choose to release the hurt from our hearts. Of course, this can often feel like the much harder option.
However, let us never forget: just as God forgave our sins through Christ, we too should seek to forgive others. In short, we can decide to love them instead, as Jesus loves us.
This is among the most humbling Bible verses about forgiving others who hurt us. True forgiveness can take a lifetime to learn. However, I think it’s surely worth the while amid our walk with Christ.
Here are 5 Bible verses about God’s incredible love for you!
2. Luke 6:37 (A Bible verse about forgiving others that reminds us how we, too, are sinners.)
Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven.
None of us are without sin, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23)
Thus, it would be hypocritical of us to expect to be forgiven for our own sins… while refusing to forgive those of others.
To avoid such double-minded behavior, we should seek to refrain from making self-righteous judgments of people. Instead, leave it to God, who is the Judge of us all.
On our parts, we ought to set our hearts on doing as Jesus commanded – to love others as he loved us. This means learning to forgive others as we hope to also be forgiven.
Say THIS prayer to resist the devil and draw closer to God!
3. Proverbs 17:9 (Forgiveness strengthens love among friends!)
Love prospers when a fault is forgiven, but dwelling on it separates close friends.
With most of our close friendships, there’ll come a point in time where a conflict is bound to happen, big or small. It’s almost inevitable!
During such moments, let us always remember: true love and forgiveness go hand-in-hand! Forgiving our friends is key to deepening the love we have for them.
We thus shouldn’t dwell on each other’s mistakes or offences. Instead, if disagreements happen, it’s good to have an honest chat, learn to compromise, and move on. Hug it out!
In addition, forgiveness not only releases our friends from spiritual bondage – it also frees our own heart from burdens we were never meant to carry. This gives us space to love more freely, as God desires us to do!
In short, this is among the most succinct – yet powerful – Bible verses on forgiving others who hurt us. Let’s lean into it as an inspiration to build stronger lifelong friendships.
What can we learn from Jesus feeding the 5000?
4. Matthew 18:21-22 (A good reminder to always seek to forgive.)
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.”
This is one of the most challenging Bible verses about forgiving others who hurt us.
Here, Jesus is not literally telling Peter (and us) to forgive someone exactly 77 times (490 times in older translations) – no more, no less.
Rather, the Son of God reminds all his followers of the need to forgive others whenever they are sincerely sorry for their actions. We should do this without secretly counting the precise number of times they ‘wronged’ us in the past. True forgiveness is not meant to be petty, calculative, nor begrudging.
This can be a hard thing to do – and can feel like a blow to our (self-righteous) ‘egos’ at first.
However, just as God forgives our own multitude of sins, He also desires for us to do the same for others who genuinely seek our forgiveness and wish to learn from their missteps.
What did Jesus mean when he said “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few” (Matthew 9:37)?
5. Matthew 6:11-12 (The Lord’s Prayer reminds us to forgive as we are forgiven.)
Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
Jesus made things clear for us. As we ask our Father for His forgiveness, we should also declare to Him our willingness to forgive those who trespass against us. The Lord’s Prayer thus humbles our hearts, teaching us that forgiveness is a daily process of letting go of our grievances against people.
In short, fully forgiving someone may take some time. That’s okay. It’s not always going to be easy. However, I think it’s important for us to keep working purposefully towards that goal on a regular basis. Forgiveness pleases God.
Let us always remind ourselves to never let bitterness fill our hearts. Unforgiveness does nothing good for us! Instead, let us lean into our Father’s grace and love for all His children as we humbly aim to let go of our hurt, pain, anger, and other negative emotions.
Forgiving others can be really challenging… but it is an absolutely vital part of our lifelong walk with Christ.
Say THIS prayer of hope during hard times in your life!
