Throughout the Old Testament the message is about retribution or “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth”. This was running OK until Jesus came on the scene and changed the rules from retribution to forgiveness. The Old Testament law usually put death as the punishment for breaking of the Ten Commandments, e.g. Adultery would result in stoning to death but as is clearly seen from the Gospels Jesus was willing to forgive people if they would not sin again. This is most clearly seen in the story of the Adulterous woman. Here Jesus offered the men willing to stone her the opportunity as long as it was a person without sin who threw the first stone. They all left, the oldest men first.
Jesus also teaches us that to guide our relationships we should always:
- Love God with all our heart, Mind and Body.
- Love our neighbour as much as we love our selves.
- Love your enemy.
These should form the basis of our personal relationships as if we follow these commands and the Ten Commandments then we should live our lives in a somewhat peaceful state, but as we are all human then forgiveness is needed when we do slip up.
Throughout the Gospels though even as Christ preaches forgiveness he never says that as Christians we are doormats. He does not say that we should forgive all the time but as long as we try. Even in the Gospels Jesus did not forgive everyone immediately. He himself went into the temple in Jerusalem and overturned the tables of the money traders and lenders in disgust at how they treated the poor. Here we see that yes forgiveness is important but not at the price of seeing wrong continually done.
Jesus taught about specific types of relationship as well. These ranged from marriage, where he spoke of no adultery and how to avoid the act through to divorce and other appropriate topics, to how many times a person should be forgiven.
Nowadays living in a faithful Christian community can strengthen people’s beliefs in these principles. Community faith and the aspect of forgiveness can strengthen the principles where forgiveness is required. It can also be strengthened by looking at how non-Christians react to relationship difficulty without this strength of community and faith.
