“What does the Bible say about unforgiveness?”……The Bible has quite a bit to say about forgiveness and unforgiveness. Perhaps the most well-known teaching on unforgiveness is Jesus' parable of the unmerciful servant

Matthew 18:21-35

In the parable, a king forgives an enormously large debt (basically one that could never be repaid) of one of his servants. Later, however, that same servant refuses to forgive the small debt of another man. The king hears about this and cancels his prior forgiveness. Jesus concludes by saying,

Matthew 18:35…"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart"…Other passages tell us that we will be forgiven as we forgive …Matthew 6:14; 7:2; Luke 6:37…14 "If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.…Matthew 7:2…For you will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged.…Luke 6:37…37 "Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven.

Do not be confused here; God's forgiveness is not based on our works. Forgiveness and salvation are founded completely in the person of God and by Jesus' redeeming work on the cross. However, our actions demonstrate our faith and the extent to which we understand God's grace

James 2:14-26…14 What good is it, dear brothers and sisters, if you say you have faith but don't show it by your actions? Can that kind of faith save anyone?15 Suppose you see a brother or sister who has no food or clothing,16 and you say, "Good-bye and have a good day; stay warm and eat well"-but then you don't give that person any food or clothing. What good does that do?…17 So you see, faith by itself isn't enough. Unless it produces good deeds, it is dead and useless.…18 Now someone may argue, "Some people have faith; others have good deeds." But I say, "How can you show me your faith if you don't have good deeds? I will show you my faith by my good deeds."…19 You say you have faith, for you believe that there is one God.[a] Good for you! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble in terror.20 How foolish! Can't you see that faith without good deeds is useless?…21 Don't you remember that our ancestor Abraham was shown to be right with God by his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar?…22 You see, his faith and his actions worked together. His actions made his faith complete.23 And so it happened just as the Scriptures say: "Abraham believed God, and God counted him as righteous because of his faith." He was even called the friend of God.…24 So you see, we are shown to be right with God by what we do, not by faith alone.…25 Rahab the prostitute is another example. She was shown to be right with God by her actions when she hid those messengers and sent them safely away by a different road.26 Just as the body is dead without breath,[d] so also faith is dead without good works.…Luke 7:47…"I tell you, her sins-and they are many-have been forgiven, so she has shown me much love. But a person who is forgiven little shows only little love."…We are completely unworthy, yet Jesus chose to pay the price for our sins and to give us forgiveness…Romans 5:8…8 But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.…When we truly grasp the greatness of God's gift to us, we will pass the gift along. We have been given grace and should give grace to others in return. In the parable, we are appalled at the servant who would not forgive a minor debt after having been forgiven his unpayable debt. Yet, when we are unforgiving, we act just as the servant in the parable.……Unforgiveness also robs us of the full life God intends for us. Rather than promote justice, our unforgiveness festers into bitterness. …Hebrews 12:14-15…14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.15 Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.…Unforgiveness can be an opening for Satan to derail us.…2 Corinthians 2:5-11…Forgiveness for the Sinner…5 I am not overstating it when I say that the man who caused all the trouble hurt all of you more than he hurt me.…6 Most of you opposed him, and that was punishment enough.…7 Now, however, it is time to forgive and comfort him. Otherwise he may be overcome by discouragement.…8 So I urge you now to reaffirm your love for him.…9 I wrote to you as I did to test you and see if you would fully comply with my instructions.10 When you forgive this man, I forgive him, too. And when I forgive whatever needs to be forgiven, I do so with Christ's authority for your benefit,11 so that Satan will not outsmart us. For we are familiar with his evil schemes.

We also know that those who have sinned against us ├ö├ç├┤ whom we may not want to forgive ├ö├ç├┤ are held accountable by God …Romans 12:19…19 Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, "I will take revenge; I will pay them back," says the Lord.…Hebrews 10:30…30 For we know the one who said, "I will take revenge I will pay them back."…He also said, "TheLord will judge his own people."…It is important to recognize that to forgive is not to downplay a wrongdoing or necessarily to reconcile. …When we choose to forgive, we release a person from his indebtedness to us. We relinquish the right to seek personal revenge. …We choose to say we will not hold his wrongdoing against him. …However, we do not necessarily allow that person back into our trust or even fully release that person from the consequences of his sin. …We are told that "the wages of sin is death"Romans 6:23……While God's forgiveness relieves us from eternal death, it does not always release us from the death-like consequences of sin (such as a broken relationship or the penalty provided by the justice system). …Forgiveness does not mean we act as if no wrong has been done; it does mean we recognize that grace abundant has been given to us and that we have no right to hold someone else's wrongdoing over his head.……Time and again, Scripture calls us to forgive one another.…Ephesians 4:32…48 But someone who does not know, and then does something wrong, will be punished only lightly. When someone has been given much, much will be required in return; and when someone has been entrusted with much, even more will be required.…We have been given much in the way of forgiveness, and much is expected from us in response…Luke 12:48…32 Instead, be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you.…Though forgiveness is often difficult, to be unforgiving is to disobey God and to depreciate the greatness of His gift.