What does the Bible say about forgiveness? How do I forgive?
God commands believers to forgive as they have been forgiven, "forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph 4:32). Forgiveness is releasing a debt, not pretending it didn't happen, and it frees the forgiver as much as the forgiven.
What the text states
The measure is the cross: forgive "even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you" (Eph 4:32), which is fully and freely. Jesus taught it in the Lord's Prayer (Matt 6:12) and the parable of the unforgiving servant (Matt 18:21-35), where the forgiven servant who would not forgive is condemned by his own hardness. Forgiveness does not mean the wrong was small or that trust is instantly restored; it means releasing the debt to God, who judges justly (Rom 12:19). Refusing to forgive imprisons the one who holds it. "Be ye kind... tenderhearted, forgiving" (Eph 4:32).
Go deeper
Checked 2026-09-29 by Darren. 62 Scripture citations verified against the KJV rows. Wave 5. 62 quoted fragments table-passed against the verses table, splitting at every ellipsis. FOUR CORRECTIONS, each to the KJV row: Acts 4:12 "in none other" is not contiguous, replaced with "none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved"; Deut 1:39 "have no knowledge" corrected to "had no knowledge"; Eph 3:2 "dispensation of grace" corrected to "dispensation of the grace of God"; Rom 11:23 "shall be graffed in again" corrected to "shall be graffed in" (the KJV runs "shall be graffed in: for God is able to graff them in again").