The process of forgetting plays a significant role in our spiritual journeys, often serving as a metaphor for spiritual neglect or departure from God’s teachings. While the Bible tends to discourage forgetfulness in spiritual matters, it also espouses the act of forgetting past wrongs and hurts as part of the process of forgiveness.
What Does the Bible Say About Human Forgetfulness?
The Bible views human forgetfulness as a potential impediment to spiritual growth. When people forget God’s laws and moral teachings, they risk straying away from the path of righteousness. Various books in the Bible underscore the importance of remembering God’s words and the importance of not forgetting His deeds. However, when it comes to human transgressions and past mistakes, the Bible often encourages forgetting as a divine act of mercy and forgiveness.
Why Does the Bible Advocate For Forgetting the Past?
The concept of forgetting in the Bible is not solely viewed in a negative light. Often, forgetting the past signifies a fresh start or a spiritual resurrection. According to the Bible, forgetting our past mistakes and transgressions is an integral part of repentance and spiritual growth. It’s often encouraged that one should leave behind past failures and sins, focus on the present and look towards a future with God. This act of forgetting helps in initiating a transformative journey towards spiritual rebirth and renewal.
Who Can Forget According to the Bible?
The act of forgetting is attributed not only to humans in the Bible, but also to God Himself. Bible verses speak of God forgetting our sins after we confess, repent and seek redemption. When God forgives, He also forgets, which characterizes Divine forgiveness as total and absolute. This divine forgetfulness reinforces the belief that once God has forgiven us, He no longer holds our past errors against us. The Bible teaches that like God, people should also practice the act of forgetting past wrongs against them as part of the process of forgiveness.
When Does Forgetting Become Essential in the Bible?
The Bible upholds the virtue of forgetting especially when it comes to forgiving others. It suggests that true forgiveness involves forgetting past wrongs and hurts inflicted by others. Forgetting, in this context, serves as an antidote to resentment and grudges, enabling individuals to free themselves from the shackles of past conflicts and animosities. Thus, according to the Bible, forgetting becomes essential when it promotes interpersonal forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.
Below is our full list of bible verses on forgetting (King James Version – KJV) provided in ranked order.
Most Popular Bible Verses About Forgetting
Philippians 3:13-14
“13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,14 I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.”
Related Themes: Hope New Beginnings Regret Business Setting Goals
Jeremiah 2:32
“32 Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a bride her attire? yet my people have forgotten me days without number.”
Related Themes: Jewelry
James 1:22-25
“22 But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves.23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass:24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.25 But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”
Related Themes: Fidelity Laziness Reaping Deception Obedience
Hebrews 8:12
“12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more.”
Related Themes: Respecting Your Parents Forgiveness Bitterness
2 Corinthians 5:17
“17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”
Related Themes: New Beginnings New Life Criticism Creativity Earth
Isaiah 43:25
“25 I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins.”
Related Themes: Respecting Your Parents Forgiveness Condemnation
1 John 1:9
“9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
Related Themes: Repentance Forgiveness Bitterness Lust Attitude
Jeremiah 31:34
“34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Related Themes: Forgiveness Trespassing
Romans 8:1
“1 There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.”
Related Themes: Lust Criticism Frustration Trespassing Frustration
Philippians 3:13
“13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,”
Related Themes: Hope New Beginnings Regret Business Setting Goals
Isaiah 43:18-19
“18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.19 Behold, I will do a new thing; now it shall spring forth; shall ye not know it? I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.”
Related Themes: New Beginnings Letting Go New Life Regret Second Chances
Hebrews 10:17
“17 And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.”
Related Themes: Forgiveness
Isaiah 43:18
“18 Remember ye not the former things, neither consider the things of old.”
Related Themes: New Beginnings Letting Go New Life Regret Second Chances
Colossians 3:13
“13 Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.”
Related Themes: Trespassing Bitterness Forgiveness Criticism Resolving Conflict
Romans 8:28
“28 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.”
Related Themes: Suffering Frustration Sovereignty Complaining Life
Galatians 2:20
“20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”
Romans 12:1-2
“1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.”
