Luke 16-18

November 3

Luke 16-18

"So watch yourselves. “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”" (Luke 17:3-4, NIV)

 Forgiveness is one of the most difficult instructions Jesus gives us. He forgives us of so much, but it is still difficult to forgive others. It is probably almost impossible to forgive without God’s help. When someone does something that hurts us, the natural reaction is to stay away from that person and to do what we can to make them pay for what they did to us.

 One of the problems with unforgiveness is that it never ends. Unforgiveness leads to retaliation and revenge. We look for ways to get even, but we never really get even. If we retaliate, the person we retaliate against feels like we have gone further than they went and seek to get revenge on us. This goes back and forth and the intensity only grows.

 Jesus said to forgive. Forgiveness breaks the cycle of retaliation. Forgiveness gives healing a chance to take place. Forgiveness once can be difficult, but Jesus said we are to forgive over and over again. He said we are to forgive seven times in a day if each time the person comes back and repents for their sin.

 This sounds ridiculous to us until we think about the way God has forgiven us. Jesus is really asking us to imitate His forgiveness. If we sin, we can turn back to Him, ask for forgiveness and He forgives. When we forgive, we extend grace the way God extends grace to us. If we can get a glimpse of how much we have been forgiven, it becomes easier to forgive others.