This may be the most prevalent of Bible clichés, if not the most controversial and the one likely to cause fellow Christians to seek me out and stone me.
In defending unconditional forgiveness, one verse fellow Christians often try to cite by memory is:
Luke 17:3-4 If your brother sins against you, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, ' you shall forgive him."
The verse above appears in 90% of Christian's Bibles. However, it appears differently in the Bible I carry:
Luke 17:3-4 If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, 'I repent,' you shall forgive him."
OK, I'm being a little facetious.
The point is, the highlighted words above might as well not be in the Bible of the vast majority of Christians, because they read right past them as if they don't exist. When shown this, they will almost instantaneously object and still claim you should always forgive. "These plain words just can't be there, there must be an explanation" they think to themselves. You may cite the Lord's prayer or some other "forgive" verse, but just because it doesn't include the repent qualifier doesn't negate the qualifier, any more than eye witness accounts where each leaves out some detail doesn't mean there are conflicting accounts. There are verses without the repent qualifier, and there are verses with it. Therefore, the only way to reconcile the two is that "forgive if they repent" must be the correct version since it accommodates ALL the forgiveness verses. Forgive unconditionally does NOT accommodate the forgive with repent qualifier verses. Unfortunately there are scores of theologians who teach unconditional repentance, such as the popular Philip Yancy, and such teaching does more harm than good, as any unscriptural teaching does.
It also makes very good reasonable sense. How many times have you heard a fellow Christian, perhaps even yourself, say, "I know I'm supposed to forgive this person, but it is very very hard". When is it hard for us to forgive? When someone has wronged us and they are completely unrepentant of it! It makes no sense to forgive them, and even if we try, and convince ourselves we have, in our heart and mind we know we really haven't. If someone says their sorry or makes an amends, it's very easy to forgive, and we should without hesitation! Also, how does "forgiving" an unrepentant person do that person any good? Lack of accountability encourages further bad behavior.
Now I am not saying to harbor some bitter root if a person doesn't repent of some wrong they did you, but you are not required to forgive them! If you don't know if they have repented, then err on the side of forgiveness. I think this is why some verses don't contain the qualifer, Christ doesn't want us to abuse the repent qualifier. Sometimes a repentance or apology may not be explicit, but it may be implied by behavior of the person, so again, err on the side of forgiveness if you don't know for sure.
Finally, if you are thinking that we should forgive as Christ forgave, then I'm glad you are thinking this. Please do apply this standard. Ask yourself, does Christ forgive the unrepentant?
Fred

Fred, I think we should explore this tope a bit more. There seems to be much confusion, not only IF we should forgive, but who HAS STANDING to forgive. The following are excerps from the news that I picked out to use for I Bible study I do on forgiveness.
Michael Ross raped and murdered eight women in Connecticut. After years of litigation, he is to be put to death. One of his surviving victims, a Vivian Dobson, is lobbying to stay his execution. When interviewed on Fox News, she said she forgives him and does not believe the government has the right to execute him.
Someone should explain to Miss Dobson that she should rebuke Michael, and if he repents, forgive him. Jesus said in Luke 17:3, “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.†In Matthew 18:22, Jesus added that you should forgive your brother “seventy times seven [if he repents].â€Â
Paul teaches that the unrepentant world is under the law, and that the law is designed to show guilt and to bring people to Christ. When people take away the condemnation of God’s law and fail to rebuke, they take away God’s primary evangelistic tool.
"But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully, knowing this: that the law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless… and for sinners… for murders… for sodomites, for kidnappers, for perjurers…" 1 Tim. 1:8-10
"Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God… Therefore the law was our tutor to bring us to Christ…" Gal. 3:19, 31, 24-25
Someone should explain to Miss Dobson that even if Michael Ross asked for her forgiveness, she can only forgive the wrong that Michael did to her. Miss Dobson can’t forgive him for his other victims. They can’t forgive him either, because they are not alive. Only God can forgive Michael Ross and then only if he repents and accepts Jesus as his Lord and Savior. Paul writes, “if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord [God] and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved†(Rom. 10:9).
Someone should explain to Miss Dobson that even if Michael Ross confesses Jesus as his Lord, he should still be executed. Earthly judges are directed by God to judge the flesh and are not to show mercy (Num. 35:31; Deut. 19:13, 21; Pro. 6:30-31). God judges the heart.
And someone should explain to Miss Dobson that she is being nicer than God. Jesus Christ (God) did not do away with the death penalty for capital crimes. Jesus emphasized that He did not come “to destroy the Law or the prophets†(Mat. 5:17-19). Jesus blasted the Pharisees for not carrying out the death penalty (Mat. 15:3-4; Mark 7:8-11). The Apostle Paul supported the death penalty in Acts 25:11 and Romans 13:4. The Book of Hebrews supports capital punishment (Heb. 10:28-29). And the Book of Revelation supports capital punishment (Rev. 13:10 & 16:5-6). And the thief on the Cross endorsed the death penalty.
Timothy McVeigh blew up a federal building in Oklahoma and murdered many innocent men, women, and children who were in the building. He went to his execution, unrepentant and mumbling some nonsense, “If I go to hell, so be it; I will adapt and survive.†But this morning, April 17, 2005, on Fox News, a survivor of the bombing, Cathy Sanders, said that in a face-to-face meeting with McVeigh, she forgave him. (Although Cathy survived, two of her grandchildren were killed in the bombing.) Cathy can forgive McVeigh for the hurt that he caused her (only if he repents), but she can’t forgive the debt he owes to her grandchildren. Only they and God can forgive this injustice.
During the Vietnam War, Hanoi Jane Fonda went to North Vietnam and gave aid and comfort to our enemies in time of war. Our POW’s were being tortured by Vietnamese guards. One of the guards’ favorite torture was hanging our soldiers from a wooden beam until their arms dislocated at the shoulders. For Jane’s visit, the guards took our soldiers, gave them a bath, put new clothes on them, doctored their wounds, fed them and falsely presented them to TV cameras as being treated humanely. When our soldiers tried to pass notes to Jane to let the world know that they were being tortured, she turned the notes over to the Vietnamese guards. The result was worse torture.
Recently, Senator John McCain was asked what he would say to Jane Fonda if he met her. (Senator McCain was a POW in North Vietnam.) Paraphrasing, he replied that he had no animosity, and that he had done foolish things in his youth and that Jane probably regrets what she did. However, recent television interviews with Hanoi Jane, in as late as April 2005, indicate a half-hearted regretâ€â€regret that she had made a PR blunder, but no repentance.
In 2006, an evil pervert barricaded himself in an Amish school with several young girls. When police arrived and attempted rescue, he murdered the girls and took his own life. He had tied the feet of the girls and the police found S@xual lubricants on his person. It’s obvious that he had planned to sodomize these young ladies.
The Amish leaders immediately forgave him. The news media lauded their unconditional love and forgiveness. One news media reported that an Amish person approached the murderer’s wife and family and said, “We forgive you.†For what? The murderer’s wife and children were innocent. But this shows how confused Christians become when they do not read and obey Scripture.
Vivian Dobson, Cathy Sanders, Senator McCain and the Amish leaders all have one thing in common. Self-righteousness! “Look at me and see how forgiving and good I am.†This type of forgiveness is phony and does nothing for the sinner who is going to hell. Unsolicited forgiveness is totally ineffective. Unless Michael, Tim, and Jane repent, they will stand guilty before the Judge of all the Universe. But why should they repent, if they are not told they are sinners? For the mass murderer of those poor Amish children, it’s too late. He’s in hell awaiting God’s righteous judgment
We Should Not Falsely Represent God
An ambassador to a foreign country should not falsely represent his country’s leader. False representation of a leader’s position can sometimes have grave consequences. One such example comes to mind when one of our State ambassadors led Saddam Hussien to erroneously believe that we would not interfere with his invasion of Kuwait. This false representation led to Desert Storm.
We Christians are ambassadors for Christ (2 Cor. 5:20). Misrepresenting Jesus Christ’s position is far more serious. If we forgive the unrepentant and teach others to do so, we point people to hell. Because then an unbeliever will falsely believe that if Jesus is real, He will forgive. “Why not? All of His followers have forgiven meâ€â€no matter what I’ve done. I know I’m an unrepentant sinner, but they forgave anyway. I have nothing to worry about. So shoot! I’ll just have a good time. Maybe I’ll look into Hinduism or Islam. Even if Jesus is the right way, I’m forgivenâ€â€according to his followers. I might even look into Native American spirits. Why not? That Christian religion is a piece of cake. Everyone is forgiven. The Christian God loves everyone, respects diversity, tolerates perverse life styles even.†Sadly, this is the message the church (Christ’s ambassadors) has given to an unbelieving world headed for hell.
TeeJay