Does God Forgive All Sins?

 

There are probably things you feel are unforgivable. Does God feel that way? Is there a sin that is so bad God can’t forgive it? Or does God forgive all sins?

God is the One who tells us what sin is, and He wants us to know several important things about sin:

• Sin is breaking God’s laws (1 John 3:4; see “What Is Sin?”).
• Sin earns the eternal death penalty (Romans 6:23).
• Jesus Christ’s sacrifice made it possible for us to be forgiven of our sins and saved from the death penalty. (See “God’s Forgiveness.”)

But even those who know these biblical facts can have serious questions. Obviously, sin is important to God—so important that the sinless Christ had to die to pay for its penalty for others. We must not take it lightly.

So when we sin a terrible sin, or when we see someone else commit a sin that we don’t see how anyone could forgive, sometimes we wonder:

Is there a sin God can’t forgive? Does God forgive all sins?

Here are some common questions and their answers from the Bible.

Does God forgive murderers?

Yes, God forgives repentant murderers.

Consider the example of King David. The Bible clearly shows David’s guilt for the premeditated murder of his loyal soldier Uriah in his attempt to cover up his adultery with Uriah’s wife Bathsheba.

Could God forgive such a heinous sin?

When David came to deeply recognize the evil of his actions, he bitterly repented and beseeched God for forgiveness. His prayer of repentance in Psalm 51 can be instructive to all who have sinned against God. (See our article “How to Pray for Forgiveness.”)

And the Bible tells us God forgave him (2 Samuel 12:13).

David suffered terrible consequences because of his sins, but God removed the ultimate penalty of eternal death. God does forgive repentant murderers.

Does God forgive all sins if you repent?

Yes.

God wants everyone to repent (2 Peter 3:9), and He even leads us to repentance (Romans 2:4).

As the apostle Peter said to those who had been cut to the heart by his sermon on Pentecost:

“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” (Acts 2:38, English Standard Version).

Of course, to be forgiven, we must understand what the Bible means by repentance. It’s more than saying we’re sorry. It involves a deep change from the inside and a total change of direction. It’s a determination to stop sinning and not to sin in the future.

Study this further in our article “How to Repent.”

Does God forgive all sins, no matter how bad?

Does God clearly state He can forgive all sins?

“Therefore let it be known to you, brethren, that through this Man is preached to you the forgiveness of sins; and by Him everyone who believes is justified from all things” (Acts 13:38-39, emphasis added throughout).

Paul wrote that our great God and Savior Jesus Christ “gave Himself for us, that He might redeem us from every lawless deed” (Titus 2:14).

And consider what Paul said to the Corinthians, residents of a city widely known for sinful and perverse lifestyles:

“Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).

But Paul didn’t stop there. He continued: “And such were some of you. But you were washed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God” (verse 11).

All of these sins can be forgiven.

All sins can be forgiven.

Does God forgive addiction?

Some sins are especially difficult to overcome because they involve addictions. Some Christians have repented often while failing to stop that cycle of sin. Sometimes it may take decades to overcome an addiction.

God understands our weaknesses and stands ready to help and to forgive each time we repent.

Study more about breaking free from sinful addictions in our article “Freedom From Addiction” and its related articles.

Does God forgive suicide?

(Note: If you or someone you know may be considering suicide, in the U.S. contact the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling 988. For suicide hotlines in other countries, see suicide.org/international-suicide-hotlines.html.)

As our article “What Does the Bible Say About Suicide?” explains:

“Would God condemn someone for all eternity whose last act is a sin? We should not presume to make a judgment about one’s eternal destiny. Passing final judgment is God’s prerogative, which He has delegated to Jesus Christ (John 5:22), not to us. Certainly, we can make a judgment that suicide is the wrong way to deal with one’s problems, but we should leave eternal judgment up to God.

“Could God extend mercy, even to a believer who takes his or her life? After all, a believer certainly knows that suicide is wrong. Consider what the Psalms show about the character of God: ‘For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him’ (Psalm 103:11). The Bible even weighs mercy against judgment, concluding that ‘mercy triumphs over judgment’ (James 2:13).

“Thankfully, God judges each of us on our entire Christian life, rather than upon a single mistake.”

Does God forgive all sins past, present and future?

God does not forgive future sins. (In other words, you can’t ask God to forgive you in advance for a sin you are going to commit in the future.)

Paul explained that because of Jesus’ sacrifice, God passes over “the sins that were previously committed” (Romans 3:25).

Jesus told the woman caught in adultery, “Go and sin no more” (John 8:11).

Repentance is about regretting past sins and committing to change. It is about seeking God’s help to stop present sins and avoid future sins.

Christians are called to a lifetime of repentance and change. Whenever we sin, whenever we drift from God, we must repent and return to Him.To try to repent of something you will do in the future is not repentance at all. It’s an oxymoron—like saying, “I’m going to change, but not if I have to change.” We can’t get permission to sin in the future. God doesn’t want us to think, “God will understand.” He wants us to change.

Yet, we do sin. Everyone occasionally sins out of weakness or ignorance. Some people have habits or patterns of sin that they slip back into even though they’re trying to overcome. From what we read in Scripture, as long as we genuinely repent of any sin we may have committed, ask for forgiveness and make diligent effort to obey God, we can be confident that our sins will be forgiven.

As John assures us, “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9).

What sins cannot be forgiven by God?

Yet the Bible gives a clear warning that some sinners won’t be forgiven. While God desires for all to be saved, we also read that some will reject His mercy.

There are passages that speak of unpardonable sin—blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, or falling away and sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth (Matthew 12:31-32; Hebrews 6:4-6; 10:26-27).

These are sobering thoughts indeed! Study what the Bible says about this in more detail in our article “What Is the Unpardonable Sin?”

How to avoid the unforgivable sin

So, does this mean there are sins that God does not forgive?

Yes, but if we put all of these passages together, we come to this conclusion: There is no sin that can’t be forgiven if and when it is repented of.

But when a sinner does not repent, God does not forgive. You could say that not repenting is not forgivable.

To avoid the unforgivable sin, we must repent! If we stray, we must return to a repentant frame of mind. Some have strayed for years, but when, like the prodigal son, they came to themselves and returned, our merciful and patient God welcomed them. He “is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9).

However, we must not allow ourselves to get so hardened, so bitter, so neglectful, so prideful that we will not repent.

Generally, those who express fear that they have committed the unpardonable sin are showing they still desire to repent and be forgiven. They must follow up on the fear and that desire, and let God lead them to repentance (Romans 2:4).

Christians are called to a lifetime of repentance and change. Whenever we sin, whenever we drift from God, we must repent and return to Him.

He will never leave us or forsake us; He is our helper (Hebrews 13:5-6). He is always willing to forgive and give us help to change.

James summarized the approach we need:

“Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded . . . Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up” (James 4:7-8, 10).

Yes, God can forgive all sins—as long as we repent and genuinely seek and desire to change.

Study more about these important subjects of sin, repentance, forgiveness and the process of conversion in our concise booklet Change Your Life!

What Does Redemption Mean in the Bible?

 

What is the biblical teaching of redemption? Why do we all need to be redeemed, and how should a redeemed person live? How should we respond to our Redeemer?

The following three scriptures paint a grim picture of the state of humanity:

• “Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4, King James Version).
• “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23).
• “All have sinned” (Romans 3:23).

In other words, the 8 billion human beings who currently inhabit the earth—and the untold billions who have ever existed—have incurred the cruel debt of death because of their sins.

Every debtor will have to make one of two choices: either let his or her life be claimed as payment, or sorrowfully beg for forgiveness—for redemption.

We need to know what redemption means, how mankind came to need it and the personal responsibility that comes with redemption, which is seldom discussed.

What does redemption mean?

To “redeem” means to buy back. Redemption is about reclaiming something. Say you left your watch at a pawn shop in exchange for a loan. To redeem your watch, you would need to repay the loan plus interest, and then you could get your watch back. When ownership of an object is regained through payment, you can say the item has been redeemed.

Of course, when it comes to the debt we owe for our sins—death—we cannot redeem ourselves. We need a Redeemer.

The Bible also uses the related idea of paying a ransom (Hosea 13:14). This can mean to buy someone back from slavery or, as it is generally used today, from a kidnapper.

Applying that concept to God’s title as “Redeemer” (Psalm 78:35) reminds us of the historic event in the book of Exodus when God purchased His people from slavery. The Israelites experienced back-breaking slavery that caused them to cry for deliverance (Exodus 2:23).

God heard their groans and pleas.

“Therefore say to the children of Israel,” God instructed Moses, “I am the LORD; I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, I will rescue you from their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm and with great judgments” (Exodus 6:6).

As the following chapters point out, Pharaoh would not let them go, in spite of seeing God’s power in plague after plague, which culminated in the death of thousands of Egypt’s firstborn.

The nation of Egypt and its people were greatly punished as God redeemed Israel, and God wanted the steep cost of their freedom to continually remind them of what was necessary to buy them out of slavery.

Of course, their response to being redeemed should have been wholehearted loyalty to God. They should have been full of awe and gratitude, with a commitment to obey Him always. But, unfortunately, history documents their chronic forgetfulness of what God had done for them.

However, God wants us to understand the modern-day parallel to the Exodus story. One important takeaway from the Bible is that the Israelites’ bondage was only a type of the large-scale slavery currently taking place.

Today, literally billions of people are enslaved.

Why do we need redemption?

When the Pharisees of Jesus’ day heard Jesus offer His followers freedom, they snapped back, “We are Abraham’s descendants, and have never been in bondage to anyone. How can You say, ‘You will be made free’?” (John 8:33).

In other words, “We have never been anyone’s slaves.”

But Jesus’ response holds the key: “Most assuredly, I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin” (verse 34, emphasis added throughout).

To that point, David observed, “The LORD looks down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there are any who understand, who seek God. They have all turned aside, they have together become corrupt; there is none who does good, no, not one” (Psalm 14:2-3).

It’s not an overstatement to say that sin has enslaved all of mankind. The words “children of men,” “all” and “none” prove that man’s condition is something felt globally. It would, however, be incorrect to say that each person’s bondage to sin is displayed in the same way. Actually, the visible effects of slavery vary from individual to individual.

For example, sin draws some to commit fornication. Sin uses the appeal of euphoria to push hard drugs on vulnerable people, who then become hopelessly hooked. Sin influences some to drink excessively. Sin feeds the “I do what I want, when I want” ego that encourages people to view God’s law with animosity.

No matter what an individual may grapple with, the powerful message is there: all human beings are sold under sin, through breaking God’s commandments (Romans 3:9; 1 John 3:4). Therefore, everyone has earned the penalty, the incurred debt, which is death (Romans 6:23).

Mankind’s only hope for survival is being redeemed by God.

What is the redemption price for us?

No amount of money could pay for our death penalty. Not a million dollars or a billion dollars or even a trillion dollars.

And the redemption of mankind collectively requires paying the death penalty for every sin committed by every human being throughout all time.

The only payment that could satisfy that demand—the only thing valuable enough and precious enough—was the life of the morally perfect, totally innocent, completely sinless Son of God, Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ the Redeemer

Jesus told His disciples, “The Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many” (Matthew 20:28).

Jesus met the total indebtedness of mankind with one payment: His shed blood.

Reflecting on Old Testament sacrificial practices, the author of Hebrews reminds us, “Not with the blood of goats and calves, but with His own blood He [Jesus] entered the Most Holy Place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:12).

The worth of His life far outweighed that of any other human being to the point of being impossible to quantify. But wanting to redeem mankind, He willingly gave His life as a ransom. Were it not for Him, every human being would have remained in bondage and died in bondage.

Is redemption the end of the story?

Many today claim they have been redeemed by Jesus’ sacrifice, but go on living the same sinful life they had before they “got saved.” (To learn more about our personal responsibility after redemption, read our article “Once Saved, Are You Always Saved?”)

Redemption from sin is not the end. Once our sins are paid for by the inestimable price of Jesus’ blood, God solemnly charges us not to return to sin. Reverting back to that lifestyle, God says, is like a dog who licks up his own vomit, or a “a sow, having washed, to her wallowing in the mire” (2 Peter 2:22).

Redeemed Christians are not to return to a life of sin, any more than an ex-convict should return to the life of crime that landed him or her behind bars in the first place. The spiritual recidivism rate is high because many fail to grasp what it means to “walk in newness of life” and to seek God’s help to do it (Romans 6:4).

Paul encountered something similar back in his day.

Apparently, some thought sexual immorality wasn’t that bad or reasoned that it could be tolerated because of God’s grace.

But Paul decisively rejected the approach of redemption as a license to sin. “Flee sexual immorality,” or get away from sin, he chided them (1 Corinthians 6:18). “Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit . . . and you are not your own?” (verse 19).

Why did he say they were not their own?

God has a plan of redemption for the whole world, and He is currently unfolding it, beginning with those whose eyes are opened to their own bondage.“For you were bought at a price,” he soberly reminded them (verse 20). In other words, you have become the sole property of God. It’s no longer an option to use your hands to steal, your mouth to lie, your eyes to covet or your body to commit fornication—you don’t belong to yourself anymore.

Instead, Paul told them to “glorify God in your body and your spirit, which are God’s” (verse 20).

Nothing in these words suggests that Paul supported a do-nothing Christianity. He was making the point that redemption comes with high expectations.

In Romans 6:13 Paul elaborated, “And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.”

Redemption includes an exchange of masters. God’s redeemed people are freed from slavery to sin, and with that freedom comes the responsibility to obey God’s laws. Simply put, we are to go from being law-breakers to being law-keepers.

As people who are no longer the property of sin and Satan the devil, we need to be totally submissive to God, who is our Redeemer and Master.

Is there a future aspect to redemption?

But suppose somebody has been redeemed and yields to God in every way until the day he or she dies—then what?

For the redeemed Christian who “overcomes” and keeps Jesus’ “works until the end,” there is God’s secure, unwavering promise of redemption from the grave (Revelation 2:26; Romans 6:22). Jesus called this “the resurrection of life,” which will take place at His second coming (John 5:29).

(To learn more about what this resurrection means, see our article “What Are the Resurrections?”)

Expressing complete confidence in this promise, the sons of Korah wrote, “But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave, for He shall receive me” (Psalm 49:15).

Job, who longed for the time his Redeemer would stand on the earth (Job 19:25), also said, “I will wait, till my change comes. You shall call, and I will answer You; You shall desire the work of your hands” (Job 14:14-15).

Paul was similarly convinced: “We ourselves groan within ourselves, eagerly waiting for the adoption, the redemption of our body” (Romans 8:23).

Every true Christian who has been purchased by the blood of the Son of God keeps the hope of the resurrection—the final redemption—alive as he or she strives to overcome sin.

Redemption and the gospel

God has a plan of redemption for the whole world, and He is currently unfolding it, beginning with those whose eyes are opened to their own bondage.

Part of the gospel’s thrust is that God offers redemption. Upon heartfelt repentance, a person can have freedom from the power of sin and have his or her debt cleared through Christ’s blood. At that point, he or she is expected to submit to all of God’s laws until death. Then, in the first resurrection, he or she will finally be redeemed from death and given eternal life.

All of these components are included in what it means to be redeemed.

(If you want to learn more about how redemption for mankind is pictured by God’s annual festivals, see our booklet From Holidays to Holy Days: God’s Plan for You.)

Mercy Triumphs Over Judgment

 

James 2:13 says that mercy triumphs over judgment. What does that mean, and how should it impact our interactions with other people?

Mercy.

Judgment.

Both of these concepts can be found throughout the Bible, and they are used in various ways. We may sometimes envision the idea of leniency when we hear the word mercy, and the idea of condemnation when we hear the word judgment.

Using those definitions might lead us to view mercy and judgment as competing concepts that are unable to coexist—either you receive mercy, or you receive judgment.

The full verse in James 2:13 states, “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment” (emphasis added throughout).

How exactly does mercy triumph over judgment? Is James indicating that judgment no longer has any relevance once mercy enters the picture?

Consider the context of “mercy triumphs over judgment”

To gain a better understanding of the phrase in question, it can be helpful to examine the preceding verses. The end of James chapter 1 states that a key aspect of “pure and undefiled religion before God” is “to visit orphans and widows in their trouble” (verse 27). The general principle involved is to show compassion to those who are in need—in essence, we are to show them mercy, as is also brought out in Proverbs 14:31.

While we may typically think of the concept of mercy in relation to forgiveness of someone who commits wrongdoing, it can also encompass kindness toward those who may be in difficult situations through no fault of their own.

This section of James primarily focuses on the fact that we should show mercy to those in need. But the same general conclusions apply with respect to showing mercy to someone who has sinned—as will be addressed later in this article.

Either way, an important takeaway highlighted by James 1:27 is that mercy must be part of our way of life. God wants us to be kind and compassionate to those around us.

Additional discussion about various aspects of godly mercy can be found in the articles “What Is the Difference Between Mercy and Grace?” and “Blessed Are the Merciful.”

An example of judgment without mercy

The second chapter of James then presents a specific scenario that reinforces this foundational principle of being merciful. A warning against showing partiality is given in verse 1, followed by an example of how that might occur.

James 2:2-4 states, “For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, ‘You sit here in a good place,’ and say to the poor man, ‘You stand there,’ or, ‘Sit here at my footstool,’ have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?”

In the situation described by James, a rich man and a poor man were treated differently because of their financial status. The scenario in these verses was in conflict with the “pure and undefiled religion” of James 1:27.

The importance of mercy—displaying kindness and compassion to those in need—should have resulted in Church members seeking to help the poor man as appropriate. Instead, showing partiality in judgment “dishonored the poor man” (James 2:6).

Mercy and God’s law

The Christians to whom James was writing may not have given much thought to the practice of showing favoritism to the wealthy, as it would have been a common occurrence in their society. However, James reminded them that God’s “royal law” gives the instruction to “love your neighbor as yourself” (verse 8). He went on to state that being partial violates that law, and thus is a sin (verse 9).

Why was partiality contrary to God’s law of loving one’s neighbor? In the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37), Jesus Christ emphasized that the foundation of God’s law is love. He then told the story of a Samaritan who had compassion on a man who had been attacked, robbed and left for dead on the side of the road. As verse 37 highlights, the Samaritan demonstrated love to his “neighbor”—someone he didn’t even know—by showing mercy to him.

God wants us to exhibit that same type of mercy and love in our own lives; He wants us to willingly show compassion toward all of the people with whom we interact—regardless of who they are. The discrimination against the poor man in the scenario that James wrote about reflected a failure to display mercy and to obey that law of love—and was thus a sin.

God’s standard of judgment

Romans 6:23 tells us that if we commit any sin, we have earned the penalty of eternal death. No matter how diligently we may obey various aspects of God’s law, falling short in a single area means that we are guilty of sin (James 2:10-11) and thus deserve the death penalty.

Since failing to show mercy is a very serious matter, James continued his message by instructing his audience to make sure that their words and actions were in alignment with “the law of liberty”—the standard by which God judges us (verse 12).

Contrary to what some may believe, James’ use of the word liberty does not mean that Christians have been given freedom to break God’s law. Rather, the Bible makes it clear that obedience to God’s law is a vital aspect of achieving true liberty—which is freedom from captivity to sin. (For a more detailed discussion of this topic, please see “Galatians 5: What Does ‘Yoke of Bondage’ Mean?” and related articles.)

God uses His law as the basis for judgment when He begins calling an individual. This form of judgment is a process that continues throughout the remainder of a Christian’s lifetime. It’s not the condemnation that we may typically envision.

A condition for receiving mercy

If the only factor used to decide our final judgment was our obedience to God’s law, then none of us would have any hope, for we all have sinned (Romans 3:23). But God does not want any of us to die! His desire is for each one of us to be saved (1 Timothy 2:3-4). He wants to show us mercy!

But He also wants us to recognize the destructive nature of sin and reject it. He wants us to realize that His way is best and that we should take steps to become like Him.

Peter highlights an important condition for receiving mercy from God. He states that God is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). The key to being forgiven by God and spared the death penalty is repentance.

True repentance involves a change in the way we think and live—a change in who we are. If we sin by failing to show mercy to others, then God expects us to change from that wrong way of thinking and acting, and to move toward becoming merciful the way He is.

The merciful shall obtain mercy

Multiple biblical passages reinforce the point that exhibiting mercy to others in all aspects—kindness, compassion, forgiveness—is required if we hope to ultimately receive mercy from God.

• Matthew 5:7 states, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
• In the parable of the sheep and the goats (Matthew 25:31-46), the sheep were rewarded for their compassionate service to other people—which occurred with no consideration of who those people were—while the goats were condemned for their lack of compassion.
• In the model prayer that Jesus Christ gave to His disciples as an outline, we are shown that our ability to obtain forgiveness for our sins is dependent on whether we forgive others for wrongdoings they have committed against us (Matthew 6:12).
• The parable of the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18:21-35) vividly illustrates the fact that since God is willing to forgive us a debt that we could never repay (the penalty of death that we have earned because of our sins), we should be willing to have compassion on others as well.

As God works with us, He is going through the process of evaluating how well we are internalizing His trait of mercy (and all aspects of His character). His fervent desire is that, at the conclusion of this judgment process, He will ultimately show us mercy when our final sentence is rendered!

From the perspective of this period during which God evaluates us, mercy and judgment can coexist, because each one of us undergoes that process of judgment when we are presented with our opportunity for salvation—and each one of us does so in the hope of receiving mercy from God.

But from the perspective of our ultimate outcome—our final sentence—either we will be granted mercy and the gift of salvation, or we will receive the condemnation of death that we have earned. Those two final outcomes cannot exist simultaneously.

Mercy’s precedence over judgment

Returning to James chapter 2, we see the essence of the matter summarized in verse 13. The verse begins: “For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.”

In the context of the scenario presented in the preceding verses, if Church members display partiality toward the rich and show no compassion to the poor in their midst, they will earn the sentence of eternal death because of their sin. If they persist in that sin and refuse to repent of their lack of mercy, they cannot expect to be shown any mercy by God.

Verse 13 then concludes on a far more uplifting note: “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” This statement reflects the fact that, in spite of the condemnation of eternal death that our sins have earned, God eagerly desires to grant us forgiveness. If we repent and strive to become like Him, He will mercifully refrain from giving us the sentence that we deserve at the conclusion of our judgment process. He will accept Christ’s death in our stead.

When it comes to God’s incredible capacity to show us compassion and to offer us forgiveness, it is certainly true that His mercy “triumphs” over the ultimate judgment we deserve!For the members to whom James was writing, if they displayed mercy and compassion toward other people in their lives—and if they repented of any ways in which they fell short of showing mercy—then they could take comfort in God’s willingness to be merciful and to spare them from the death penalty.

That same mercy from God is available to us today.

Showing mercy is a higher priority to God than executing the judgment we deserve for every wrong thing that we do. In that sense, mercy is victorious over judgment.

But His mercy does not eliminate the possibility of our receiving that condemnation if we refuse to live according to God’s standards! The fact that God is merciful means that He provides us with ample opportunity to repent. It does not mean that He will grant us unconditional leniency regardless of anything that we do.

Becoming more like God

Since God wants us to take on His nature, our goal should be to emulate Him. We are to prioritize showing mercy to those around us rather than giving judgment in the form of condemnation—even when we are the ones who have been wronged by other people.

This does not mean that we are to overlook sin. Being merciful like God involves our wanting to provide others with the opportunity to demonstrate repentance; it does not involve our condoning evil or abstaining from judgment altogether.

For example, Christ instructed His disciples to “judge with righteous judgment” (John 7:24). Similarly, the apostle Paul corrected the Corinthians for being tolerant of sin in their midst. He showed that there are situations in which godly judgment requires us to separate ourselves from those who are practicing evil (1 Corinthians 5:1-13).

It can be challenging at times to determine how we can show mercy the way God expects us to while also properly exercising godly judgment. There is no single approach that applies to every situation; the article “7 Keys for Developing Spiritual Discernment” can be helpful in our lifelong efforts to improve in this area. But a key principle we should take to heart is that just as God eagerly desires to show us mercy, we also should eagerly desire to model the same behavior in our interactions with others. We should love mercy.

A message of hope

Although James 2:13 warns us to examine how we relate to other people, it also provides us with great encouragement. Despite the fact that each one of us has earned the sentence of eternal death because of our sins, God’s mercy is so great that He is ready to forgive us when we repent.

When it comes to God’s incredible capacity to show us compassion and to offer us forgiveness, it is certainly true that His mercy “triumphs” over the ultimate judgment we deserve! Our responsibility is to make sure that we also prioritize mercy in the way we deal with other people.