Our human nature often puts limits on forgiveness. We forgive once, and maybe even twice, but when someone hurts us and sins against us three, four, or five times, we start to close our hearts off to forgiveness. While we humans are tempted to put limits on how often we forgive, Jesus taught differently. He taught His followers to forgive continually. After all, we have been shown great forgiveness, so we must offer that same continual forgiveness to others.
Jesus taught about the importance of forgiving continually in Matthew 18. In this passage of Scripture, Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?" (verse 21). Peter thought his guess, "seven times," was a good and generous estimate, but Jesus proved him wrong. He said, “No, not seven times…but seventy times seven” (verse 22). Now, Jesus did not mean that we should forgive someone only up to four hundred and ninety times. After all, we will lose track when counting up to four hundred and ninety. Instead, Jesus was teaching that we should forgive as often as we have the opportunity. Then, He told a parable about a servant who was forgiven a significant debt, but refused to forgive a debt that someone owed him. As a result of his unforgiveness, the unforgiving debtor was punished for refusing to forgive. Through this parable, Jesus reminded Peter and the rest of His listeners how greatly they had been forgiven. Because they had been forgiven greatly by God, they were called to forgive, too.
Jesus not only taught us how to forgive. He showed us. In an ultimate act of forgiveness, He gave up His life for the sins of the world so that we can be forgiven and made right with God. After His resurrection, Jesus forgave Peter for denying knowing Him as He was arrested and sentenced to be killed on a cross. What an incredible example Jesus set for us!
My friend, you have been greatly forgiven. Jesus took on the punishment that you owe for your sins so that you can be made right with Him. Will you forgive continually today? Showing this forgiveness does not make transgressions against you okay, but it can restore relationships and soften your own heart.
Take a few moments to focus on your own forgiveness. Write out a prayer to God. Write about what your life was like before He changed your life. Next, write about the difference He made in your life. Thank Him for His extravagant, limitless forgiveness in your own life, and ask Him to help you forgive that same way, too.
1About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them. 3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. 4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me. 6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
7 “What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting. 8 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet. 9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
10 “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.
12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? 13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! 14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back. 16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses. 17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you. 20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
