Words by Phillip Williams | Images by Nick Rizzo
I often turn to Luke 17:3-5, where Jesus says, “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Forgiveness is hard. It’s so hard that it’s easy to relate to the apostles’ reaction to being asked to forgive so freely. Their response to Jesus’s statement about forgiveness is, “Lord, increase our faith.”
The task of forgiving so wildly feels impossible to the apostles, and they recognize that only Jesus can help them.
Think about what happens in these verses. Jesus says that if someone hurts you, confront them. Tell them it was wrong. And if they repent, forgive them.
That checks out. If I talk to them about it and think they really are sorry, then I can forgive them. Makes sense.
But look at the outrageous forgiveness Jesus is really asking for. He says, “Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.”
Does Jesus mean you only have to forgive someone seven times, and then on the eighth time you’re good to ignore them? No. He clearly means to have limitless forgiveness.
But here’s what’s shocking: If someone comes to you seven times in the same day asking for forgiveness for the same thing, what do you assume about them?
They don’t mean it. They aren’t really that sorry. Clearly, they don’t have a deep level of repentance if they have to ask for forgiveness seven times in one day.
But what does Jesus say?
Forgive them anyway.
You might be tempted, when someone hurts you, to think, “I don’t know if they are sorry enough. I’m not sure they have really repented.”
But let me ask you this plainly: Is the forgiveness you receive from Jesus dependent on how sorry you are, or on how gracious He is?
And listen, you may choose to be forgiving, and it may hurt you. You could definitely choose to be callous and cold, and it would probably save you some heartache.
But let me ask you one more question: When you stand before Jesus one day, kneeling at His feet, would you rather the allegation against you be that you forgave too much or forgave too little?
Seems like a simple choice to me. 78