Does Jesus require forgiveness when someone has not apologized?

Direct answer

Jesus calls his followers to love enemies, reject vengeance, and forgive from the heart. Luke also ties an explicit command to forgive a repeated offender to that person’s repentance.

The Gospels place forgiveness near the center of discipleship. In Matthew 18, Peter asks how often he must forgive a brother who sins against him. Jesus’s answer—“seventy times seven”—rejects a small numerical limit, and the parable that follows condemns a servant who receives mercy but refuses it to another.

Luke 17 adds an important detail. Jesus tells disciples to rebuke a person who sins, to forgive if that person repents, and to do so repeatedly when repentance is repeated. The passage does not portray forgiveness as silence about harm: wrongdoing is named, repentance matters, and mercy follows.

Matthew 5 reaches beyond the response of the offender by commanding love and prayer even for enemies and persecutors. Taken together, these texts support a continuing posture of mercy rather than retaliation, while also allowing wrongdoing to be confronted. They do not directly answer every practical question about safety, restored access, or rebuilt trust, so those issues should not be collapsed into a single use of the word “forgive.”

Sources and supporting excerpts

• Matthew 18:17-24 (WEB) · Gospels (World English Bible)

  How often shall I forgive?

  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector. Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven. Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.” Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven. Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he had begun to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.

  The World English Bible is in the public domain. "World English Bible" is a trademark of eBible.org. Text from eBible.org.

• Luke 17:1-8 (WEB) · Gospels (World English Bible)

  Rebuke, repentance, and repeated forgiveness

  He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no occasions of stumbling should come, but woe to him through whom they come! It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, rather than that he should cause one of these little ones to stumble. Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.” The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.” The Lord said, “If you had faith like a grain of mustard seed, you would tell this sycamore tree, ‘Be uprooted and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you. But who is there among you, having a servant plowing or keeping sheep, that will say when he comes in from the field, ‘Come immediately and sit down at the table’? Wouldn’t he rather tell him, ‘Prepare my supper, clothe yourself properly, and serve me while I eat and drink. Afterward you shall eat and drink’?

  The World English Bible is in the public domain. "World English Bible" is a trademark of eBible.org. Text from eBible.org.

• Matthew 5:41-48 (WEB) · Gospels (World English Bible)

  Love your enemies

  Whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and don’t turn away him who desires to borrow from you. “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

  The World English Bible is in the public domain. "World English Bible" is a trademark of eBible.org. Text from eBible.org.

• Matthew 18:33-35 (WEB) · Gospels (World English Bible)

  Mercy received and mercy given

  Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, even as I had mercy on you?’ His lord was angry, and delivered him to the tormentors until he should pay all that was due to him. So my heavenly Father will also do to you, if you don’t each forgive your brother from your hearts for his misdeeds.”

  The World English Bible is in the public domain. "World English Bible" is a trademark of eBible.org. Text from eBible.org.

Provenance and limits

Editorially rewritten from one of two overlapping shared answers; the weaker duplicate was rejected. Excerpts were rechecked against the current World English Bible corpus on August 20, 2026.

This source reading is not a safety plan or pastoral directive. If harm or danger is present, seek qualified help rather than using this page to decide whether to remain in danger.