Forgiveness isn't meant to be blind or done naively.

Jesus commands Christians to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" and Proverbs tells us to not even trust a neighbor or a friend.

You can forgive someone while recognizing that they're bad news and you need to get away from that person.

And when you see that the person seems to have changed, depending on the circumstance, you can reconcile with that person, but it should be done intelligently and accurately assessing things so you don't get chewed up and spit out.

People do try to take advantage of gracious natures so that's why Christians should be careful to sus that out.

But you can forgive someone while deciding unless something changes, you're never going to associate with that person.

One example could be, you used to be into drugs, and your drug dealer did a lot of screwed up stuff to you.

If a Christian forgives that drug dealer, should they then go reconcile with that drug dealer?

Probably not, because if drugs were an issue for them, the wisest thing to do is get rid of any contacts from your phone that have anything to do with drugs but still be praying for them.

Now if you've been 10 years sober and drugs aren't a temptation for you anymore, and you want to share the gospel with the person who used to be your drug dealer, now it's a different situation, but in both situations a Christian shouldn't be going in naively and assuming good about the other persons nature.

You can forgive and also recognize that people search for weakness and will chew you up and spit you out if they get the chance and you ought to be careful.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 10:16 "Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves".

In other words, be kind, be loving, but also be smart.

Forgiveness isn't meant to be blind or done naively.

Jesus commands Christians to "be wise as serpents and innocent as doves" and Proverbs tells us to not even trust a neighbor or a friend.

You can forgive someone while recognizing that they're bad news and you need to get away from that person.

And when you see that the person seems to have changed, depending on the circumstance, you can reconcile with that person, but it should be done intelligently and accurately assessing things so you don't get chewed up and spit out.

People do try to take advantage of gracious natures so that's why Christians should be careful to sus that out.

But you can forgive someone while deciding unless something changes, you're never going to associate with that person.

One example could be, you used to be into drugs, and your drug dealer did a lot of screwed up stuff to you.

If a Christian forgives that drug dealer, should they then go reconcile with that drug dealer?

Probably not, because if drugs were an issue for them, the wisest thing to do is get rid of any contacts from your phone that have anything to do with drugs.

Now if you've been 10 years sober and drugs aren't a temptation for you anymore, and you want to share the gospel with the person who used to be your drug dealer, now it's a different situation, but in both situations a Christian shouldn't be going in naively and assuming good about the other persons nature.

You can forgive and also recognize that people search for weakness and will chew you up and spit you out if they get the chance and you ought to be careful.

That's why Jesus said in Matthew 10:16 "Be wise as serpents, and innocent as doves".

In other words, be kind, be loving, but also be smart.