Continue the Rays of the Dawn Series
If you would like to read the earlier parts of this inspirational series first:
- Part 1: The Mirror of Faultfinding, Overcoming Destructive Criticism and Gossip
- Part 2: Chapter 14, Prejudice and Intolerance, Opening the Closed Mind to Divine Diversity
Forgiveness begins with the fact of human imperfection
Every imperfect person makes mistakes. Until perfection is reached, ignorance, temptation, carelessness, and weakness remain part of human life. For that reason, forgiveness is not an idea reserved for unusually kind people. It is a necessity for every person who has ever needed mercy.
Thomas Fuller wrote:
“He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself, for every man has need to be forgiven.”
Chapter 26 is grounded in that reality. Recognition of one’s own need for forgiveness weakens the pride that makes condemnation easy. It becomes harder to place oneself above the person who has failed. The mistake may be different, or the same offense may have been avoided, but human fallibility remains a universal fact.
This recognition does not excuse wrongdoing. It corrects the attitude brought toward the wrongdoer. The chapter directs attention to more than the offense committed. There is a life, a history, a motive, and a degree of understanding behind the action.
Understanding must come before condemnation
Dr. Fleet writes:
“Kindness, sympathetic understanding, charity and love, these are the attributes that prepare the way for forgiveness.”
The chapter teaches that condemnation should not come before examination. The circumstances matter. Was the harm deliberate? Was it caused by ignorance? Was it carelessness? Did the person understand the consequences? What motive was operating? Could the situation look different from the other person’s position?
This is not permission to approve of every action. It is a demand to judge with more knowledge.
Practical application makes that distinction clearer. In a family conflict, harsh words may come from ignorance, fear, confusion, or an old habit the speaker has never examined. A workplace injury may result from carelessness rather than deliberate hostility. A business dispute may begin with poor communication, incomplete information, or a failure to understand another person’s obligations. An online argument may grow because people respond to fragments of information without knowing the full circumstances.
Where ignorance is the cause, the chapter points toward instruction and aid rather than immediate condemnation. Those who possess knowledge and authority have a duty to help people who are ready to learn. At the same time, understanding does not require denial of facts. The error can be named, corrected, and addressed without nourishing hatred.
Forgiveness is not passivity
Chapter 26 makes a sharp distinction between forgiveness and surrendering judgment or protection. Dr. Fleet writes:
“There are some people whose souls are so perverted that they intentionally and deliberately bring injury to others to advance some evil purposes of their own. Such individuals should be brought to justice for the deliberate, premeditated evil which they cause.”
That principle should remain clear. Deliberate, premeditated harm may require boundaries, removal from a position of authority, legal action, or other protection. Practical application includes ordinary situations as well as extreme ones. A victim does not have to remain available to a person who continues to cause injury. A business owner may end a dishonest relationship. A family member may create distance from an abusive relative. A person targeted online may refuse further contact and report misconduct.
Protection is not revenge. Justice is not hatred. Accountability is not unforgiveness.
The distinction is direct; a wrongdoer can be brought to justice without cruelty becoming the purpose. The truth can be told without malice. Protection can remain in place without allowing another person’s evil to govern one’s inner life.
Revenge returns to the person who carries it
Chapter 26 treats revenge as self-injury disguised as strength. Dr. Fleet writes:
“One should not be vindictive, for revenge is a ‘boomerang,’ and it harms the person indulging in this destructive force more than it does its victim.”
The warning is practical. When a person lives for the moment of getting even, the offender continues to occupy the mind. The injury remains active within consciousness. Hatred, resentment, and the desire to repay harm do damage beyond the original event.
For that reason, justice must be separated from retaliation. Justice seeks to restore order, protect the innocent, and recognize the seriousness of the violation. Revenge seeks emotional payment. Justice may be necessary. Vindictive retaliation is destructive.
Practical application clarifies the difference. In family life, one insult does not justify a greater insult in return. In business, a painful dispute does not justify damaging someone’s reputation out of spite. In public discussion, popular outrage does not justify joining an online mob. The facts should be examined, action should be taken where needed, and the injury should not be continually fed.
The higher choice is between hatred and love
The chapter contrasts two responses to injury. One is retaliation, “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.” The other is the teaching of Jesus:
“If a man shall strike you on one cheek, turn the other.”
In the chapter’s framework, these represent two different forces. One expresses hatred. The other expresses love.
Fleet does not present this as helplessness. The issue is what an injury is allowed to create within the person who has been harmed. If hatred is answered with hatred, the same destructive force is extended. If it is answered with love, that chain is interrupted.
Practical application of does not remove firmness. Love may require truth. Love may require separation. Love may require reporting deliberate wrongdoing. Love may require refusing cooperation with a person who continues to injure others. But firm action does not have to proceed from malice.
Self-forgiveness requires correction, not denial
Chapter 26 also applies forgiveness inward. Many people can pardon another person more easily than they can pardon themselves. They continue to carry an old mistake as a sentence long after the lesson has been learned.
Dr. Fleet writes:
“Forgiveness of a wrongdoing, sin, or mistake implies the liberation from every sense of condemnation, freedom from a sense of punishment, fear and morbidity.”
The chapter does not recommend denial. It recommends analysis and correction. Practical application asks direct questions. What was not understood? What weakness influenced the action? What consequence did the act bring into another person’s life? What must change?
The proper response is to profit by the failure and make a firm resolve not to repeat it. That is responsibility. Continual self-condemnation is something else. It does not repair harm. It does not teach wisdom. It can stunt the growth of the body, mind, and soul.
Self-forgiveness does not mean declaring that the mistake was unimportant. It means releasing the burden of condemnation after the mistake has been honestly faced and the responsibility to live differently has been accepted.
Make peace today where it is safe and appropriate
Chapter 26 includes the warning:
“Let not the sun go down upon your wrath.”
Its meaning is practical. Time does not automatically heal every injury. In many cases, time allows resentment to become more organized, more defended, and more difficult to release. Where it is safe and appropriate, peace should be made without unnecessary delay. Speak honestly. Admit your part. Offer a good deed in place of an evil one. Do not wait for perfect conditions if action can rightly be taken now.
This does not require direct contact in every situation. Practical application must account for safety. If contact would expose a person to further harm, peace may begin with a boundary, a truthful report, or a private decision to release revenge. The essential work is to prevent anger from becoming the permanent ruler of one’s nature.
The chapter also supports emphasizing the good in a person when positive forces can still predominate. That does not mean pretending wrongdoing did not occur. It means refusing to define the whole person by the worst action witnessed. When a person is penitent and ready to learn, recognition of the good can help direct that person toward the light.
When a person remains deliberately harmful, accountability must remain in place. Forgiveness does not erase discernment.
Forgiveness is strength
Chapter 26 rejects the idea that unforgiveness is strength. Unforgiveness keeps the mind fixed upon the person who caused the injury. True forgiveness is presented as the stronger position because it releases condemnation, fear, and the need to retaliate, while still allowing protection and discernment.
Dr. Fleet writes:
“The person who relieves his conscious thought of all injuries and who refuses to indulge in revenge or animosity has elevated himself to the exalted place where these evil forces can no longer disturb his peace or interfere with his happiness.”
He also concludes:
“True forgiveness flows only from a strength and greatness of soul, conscious of its own force and security, and above the little temptations of resenting every fruitless attempt to interrupt its happiness.”
The chapter’s closing logic is consistent throughout. Recognize the universal need for forgiveness. Examine circumstances before condemning. Pity ignorance where instruction can help. Bring deliberate evil to justice when necessary. Protect the innocent. Refuse revenge.
Forgive where forgiveness is called for. Correct what must be corrected. Seek justice without hatred. Make peace today where it is safe. Then continue forward without allowing the offense to govern thought, action, or happiness.
For further study, read Rays of the Dawn: Natural Laws of the Body, Mind, and Soul or visit the Concept Therapy Institute resource page.
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