How often are you willing to forgive someone who does something wrong? Are you willing to forgive them over and over? Is there a point at which you will no longer forgive? How often do you need to be forgiven for doing the same wrong again and again?
Forgiving someone who does something wrong over and over is an extreme challenge. We want to say to them, “Hey, grow up! Stop doing that!” However, we know that won’t really work. It doesn’t work with us either. Just because we are told to stop doesn’t mean we will.
Forgiving the same thing multiple times just doesn’t sit well with us. If someone borrows money and continues to fail to repay is hard to forgive. Someone who borrows a shirt and never returns it, then borrows another one is difficult to forgive. Someone who borrows tools and never returns them or returns them months later is hard to forgive.
Peter asked Jesus how many times he was to forgive. He thought he was being generous by offering to forgive seven times. Jesus point blank told Peter that was not enough. Depending on the translation you read or how the Greek is translated, Jesus either says seventy-seven times or seventy times seven. In either case, Jesus meant it to have no defined number. He meant we are to forgive each and every time.
Forgiving someone every time they sin against us is extremely challenging. How can we do that? The first thing we must understand, not just intellectually but deep in our heart, is that nothing in this world is eternal. We are the only ones who are eternal beings. Everything else will go away. It is temporary. In relation to the eternal, all of this world is meaningless. When we understand that, we can truly forgive each and every time.
I pray we all learn to forgive all wrongs. I pray we realize nothing in this world is eternal. I pray each one of us will forgive our brother and sister as many times as needed for our own sakes. Forgive as Jesus forgives. Forgive every time. Forgive all wrongs. Be like Jesus. Know you have eternity.
Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “Not seven times, but, I tell you, seventy-seven times.”
Marty Pressey 