A co-worker stole something from my desk at work. A couple days later, they talked about it, not TO me but with my supervisor who sat next to me. They wanted to let me know they stole it guess. They just explained why they stole it. After that, they left. The item was never returned, nor did my supervisor press the person to give it back. No apology was given. At that point, this person treated the item as if it belonged to them and would not be returned. After three days and the item still not returned, I go to HR and tell them what happened. Something apparently happens as a couple of days later, the item magically reappears on my desk.

No apology ever came forth. No "I'm sorry". No request for forgiveness. My supervisor advised I should drop the issue.

As a christian, am I supposed to forgive this person? How should I feel about my supervisor's behavior in this?

I look at Bible verses and I see this:

Luke 17: 3-4

Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”

The thing is, this person never repented. I have to deal with this person on occasion at work so I'd like to know how it should be handled as a christian.

Good answer:
Did you rebuke him? You might not want to because it seems your boss favors the co-worker over you. Best moral thing to do is would be forgive anyway and let God judge them.

Bad answer:
Me, I wouldn't be so nice. I'd get even, like spray this at the co-worker's desk and car: http://www.liquidass.com/ or take something of his and just throw it away every time he does something like that.

I've always felt that people who steal, get caught, and can't even man up and apologize are punks. I've not read anything in the new Testament that says its wrong to think that.

I read somewhere in New Testament where a couple were scamming people and got caught by(I think Peter?). They lied but it didn't worked and they got executed.

What did they steal, and what was the explanation for taking it?

I feel like you should just get over it. You don't need to forgive the person or not forgive the person... just take it as a sign of their character and move on. Spending time debating in your mind whether to forgive or not to forgive, and then the mental battle of deciding to forgive the person but still feeling angry about the situation is pointless. Move on.

This post was edited by IceMage on Jul 10 2016 02:09pm

Thanks but I came to this forum to get a biblical interpretation of how to handle this, as in what would Jesus say should be done. I'm not looking for how you personally feel it should be handled. Unless of course you are deriving this from New Testament scripture. What is the source if that is the case?

This post was edited by Kuggergug on Jul 10 2016 05:33pm

Good luck finding Jesus's opinion on how to handle someone who stole an unknown object from your desk at work.

Do not judge others, that is in the bible. Do not look down upon others. Forgive, but you don't have to forget. God works in mysterious ways and punishes the wicked.. he also gives blessings to the righteous. May God be with you.

This post was edited by tonyg87 on Jul 20 2016 10:54am

instead of the new testy , why not turn to the torah?

u could ask that mosaic law be enforced here..