What does First B Jackson teach about unforgiveness?
Drawn from the messages where it was actually addressed: the words said from the front, the passages taught, and where to hear the whole thing.
At First B Jackson, the teaching on unforgiveness starts with a simple and uncomfortable claim: it does real damage to the person holding it. It stunts spiritual growth, damages a person's relationship with God, steals joy and peace, and creates what Michael Demetrius described as a prison of the mind, where thoughts run on revenge rather than love. Michael, the youth director who preached on this in February 2019, put it plainly: unforgiveness is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die. Bitterness and resentment crowd out the capacity to love a neighbor, which Jesus names as the second greatest commandment.
The hinge of the teaching every time this subject has come up at First B Jackson is the parable in Matthew 18. A servant is forgiven an impossible debt and immediately throws someone else in prison over a fraction of what he owed. The master's fury follows, and Jesus closes the parable by saying this is how the heavenly Father will treat those who will not forgive. Deborah, who led the women's Bible study series on this in October 2023, said the tormentors who came for the man in prison represent the bitterness and anger that eat a person alive from the inside, stealing sleep and stealing joy. The Lord's Prayer makes the same point from a different angle: Jesus says in Matthew 6 that if we do not forgive others, the Father will not forgive us. Michael said that when he first came to faith he understood forgiveness as a settled gift, but reading those verses changed that. He could no longer treat forgiveness as optional.
The teaching at First B Jackson is also careful about what forgiveness is not. It is not forgetting, not approval of what was done, and not the same thing as trust, since trust is earned while forgiveness is freely given. It is not fair, because fairness is not how Jesus operated when he went to the cross while we were still sinners. People stay stuck, the teaching goes, when they confuse forgiving someone with saying what happened was acceptable, or with putting themselves back in harm's way. For small, everyday offenses, Proverbs 19:11 calls it honorable simply to let them go. For genuine deep wounds, Deborah said godly confrontation following the pattern of Matthew 18 is necessary, but motive matters in how that is approached.
Taught from Matthew 18:21-35 · Matthew 6:14-15 · Ephesians 4 · Matthew 6:9-13 · Proverbs 19:11
The passage taught · 1 Chronicles 12:32
32 Of the children of Issachar, men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their heads were two hundred; and all their brothers were at their command.
World English Bible
The messages that teach on it
- October 25, 2023 Women's Bible Study - October 25th, 2023 - Review and New Topic: Forgiveness Deborah teaches First Baptist Jackson's women's Bible study on how unforgiveness blocks spiritual growth, drawing from Matthew 18 and Ephesians 4.
- February 10, 2019 Forgiveness Is Not Optional Michael Demetrius teaches First Baptist Jackson on why forgiveness is not optional for believers, what it is, what it isn't, and how to actually do it.
- February 10, 2019 Forgiveness Is Your Path to Freedom A sermon on forgiveness from Matthew 6 and 18, exploring what forgiveness is, what it isn't, and why Jesus calls every believer to practice it freely.
- February 15, 2015 God Has Forgiven Us, So We Should Forgive Others A mother's forgiveness of a drunk driver who killed her daughter opens a meditation on why forgiving others is inseparable from receiving God's forgiveness.
Mentioned along the way
- December 7, 2014 The Significance and Singularity of Christmas A Wyoming pastor explores what makes Christmas singular: Jesus is the only sinless savior in human history, and the only one truly able to rescue us from sin.