Forgiven And Forgiving!
"And forgive us our debts,
as we forgive our debtors."
Matthew 6: 12
Peter often said what others might have been thinking but
were afraid to say. He once asked Jesus, “Lord, how
often
shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” Or, we
might put it: “At what point can I stop forgiving my brother
who sins against me?”
In rabbinical writings from Jesus’ day, discussions are found
about forgiveness. The
consensus was that a brother could
be forgiven three times for a repeated sin—but not more. So
when Peter answered his own question suggesting he was
willing to forgive seven times, he might have been thinking
he was a generous person.
But Jesus took away the limits on forgiveness by saying we
forgive “seventy times seven” times (Matthew 18:22). Jesus
said as much when He told the disciples
to ask God forgive
them from their sins as they forgave the sins of others
(Matthew 6:12).
If you don’t want God to limit His
forgiveness of you, don’t limit your
forgiveness of others (Matthew 6:
14-15).
Is there
anyone in your life
today that you need to forgive?
"Forgiveness is to be
set loose from sins."
G. Campbell Morgan
