“‘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 apostles said to the Lord, ‘Increase our faith!’” (Luke 17:3-5)
In these troubling days of political unrest, many have trouble with the issue of forgiveness. Many feel that something someone is doing to us or to someone else is unforgivable. Many have thought “I can’t forgive that person. He or she did something that was unpardonable. That person is beyond even the forgiveness and mercy of God.” They may well be for those who commit what we deem to be the most heinous crimes often have such a high view or their own superiority coupled with a low regard for the value of human life that it is clear they have hardened their hearts toward God. But it is not for us to say.
And yet as Jesus teaches He tells us that only those who repent can be truly be forgiven, we must be ready to forgive everyone just as God is, even those guilty of the vilest of sins. And in addition we should pray for that person to repent and desire it just as He does. If God can forgive sinners then we must also. And we have to forgive over and over again as long as it is necessary.
The disciples knew that what Jesus said about forgiveness made it seem nearly impossible, so they asked for faith to obey. After all, forgiveness is a hard process that starts with a decision, but not a quick or easy one. Forgiveness is by faith for in forgiving I trust God to deal with the offender. I give up my desire for revenge.
Our decision to forgive takes place before God prior to any confrontation with the offender. We have to decide to forgive before we confront, before he repents. Logically, if we want to restore a sinner, we must have this willingness to forgive before we go to rebuke. We want to restore our brother, so we want him to repent. So we are willing to forgive.
Many of us like to proceed eagerly to the rebuke, to confront people and tear them apart. But before we get there I think we need to engage in self-examination. Self-examination is the way to prepare oneself to administer a rebuke. It helps us to temper our actions with compassion and mercy for, when we look at ourselves, we realize that we too are sinners, weak, subject to temptation and in need of forgiveness. To pretend that we don’t sin is to become proud and legalistic like the Pharisees.
Once we forgive, however, we are not to think that we have done anything special, or that we should be proud of ourselves. We have only done our duty. Forgiveness is the duty of every Christian. God has canceled an enormous debt of sin for each of us. We have no right to withhold forgiveness of a debt which is minuscule in comparison. So as we consider the words of Jesus, we must remember how much we have been forgiven. Then we can approach and challenge those who offend us to repent, and we can do so with humility and compassion. https://trinityhicksville.org
Theophany: Meeting With God in His Word 