Here is exactly where the Word of Christ is stricter.
Matthew 6:14, 15. For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Religion has its doctrines, but life in Christ has it's if, ands, and buts....
Many people don't understand '
if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you:
God doesn't forgive you because you forgive others. That's not what the gospel is all about. If 5000 people hurt you and you forgive all even then just because you do doesn't mean you receive forgiveness. Because forgiveness comes from grace and not something you done, do or will ever do nor will any quantity of your good deeds even remove just of your sins.
Our Lord in the gospels is clearly saying that I am only truly forgiven when I am truly repentant. To be truly repentant means that I realise I deserve nothing but punishment, and that if I am forgiven it is to be attributed entirely to the love of God and to His mercy and grace, and to nothing else at all. If I am truly repentant and realise my position before God and realise that I am only forgiven that way, then of necessity I shall forgive those who trespass against me.
And if I seen and experienced all that, the free gift of God, then I no longer see men as I used to see them, I see them now with Christian eye. I see them as the victims and the slaves of sin. I have come to see them not simply as men who I dislike but as men to be pitied. I have come to see them as being governed by the god of this world, as being still where once I was, and would be yet but for the grace of God. So I am sorry for them.
Just look at Jesus, there upon the cross, who never sinned who never did any harm to anyone, who came and preached the truth, who came to seek and save that which was lost. And what does He say? 'Father, forgive them'. Why? For they not know what they do. It is not they, it is satan, they are victims, they are being governed and dominated by sin. Christ has pity upon the sinners and is merciful with respect for them And that I say, is to be the condition of every Christian. We are to feel a sense of sorrow for all who are helpless slaves of sin. That is to be our attitude towards people.
So yes we should forgive but forgive because we remember that we were too controlled by the sin (does not excuse our actions) and we still would remained enslaved to sin had not Jesus took pity on us, so when we are forgiving others we remember how Jesus looked at us in pity and we look at others who are hurting (because they are controlled by sin like we once were) us and forgive them for the same reason as Jesus forgave us.
So no I am not forgiven and my wicked heart in not cleansed just because I have a nice character and forgive others. I only receive mercy just because Jesus took pity on me, that's what it means to be merciful