On Forgiveness

When we act well, we tend to be acting more responsibly and with greater reasoning; and when we act badly, we tend to be acting less responsibly and with less good reasoning. Acting well usually means something like doing good, reasoning competently, believing a true thing, making the world a slightly better place through some action, that sort of thing. Acting badly usually means doing something ignoble, reasoning incompetently, believing a false thing, making the world a slightly worse place through some action, that sort of thing.

What the above means is that by a small margin we are more responsible for the good we do than the bad we do, because we were on better form and reasoning better when we did the good thing than the bad thing. You know what I mean, I think; when Jill spent some time and effort working out how to help the local charity shop arrange its window display, she acted better than Jack, who acted impulsively in a moment of anger and smashed the window with a brick - but she also acted more responsibly and with better reasoning. Good acts usually require careful thought and good reasoning, though they can arise from well-formed character and instinctive virtue - whereas acting impulsively, in haste, is usually the precursor to bad actions (there are, of course, plenty of exceptions in both cases - but the rule of thumb holds).

And on those times when you acted less well than you hoped, you yourself know that you weren't at your best, and that if only we could see what was going on inside you, and have full access to the struggles within your soul, we'd be very forgiving. Well, it's great that that is what God is like, and probably why He created a world in which we are encouraged to forgive easily and be circumspect in judging others.