How many times must I forgive my brother or sister?
Forgiveness among believers
Matthew records the fourth of Jesus' five major discourses in his Gospel in chapter 18. As His earthly ministry draws to a close, Jesus has spent considerable time clarifying His identity and mission (chapters 14-17).
Jesus is instructing His disciples on the nature of His covenant community, here in chapter 18, He is explaining the kingdom community's characteristics: community life that will characterize their relationships with one another and with the world at large.
The Parable of the Unforgiving ServantMatthew 18:21-35
Jesus is stressing the importance of forgiveness. Sometimes we become so zealous to serve within the Church and we spend little time studying the importance of forgiveness and live peacefully with one another.
We fail to address inter-personal relationship within the community of the body of Christ.
How often must I forgive?
Matthew 18:21 Then Peter came up and said to him (Jesus), "LORD, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?"
Matthew 18:22 Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times.
Is forgiveness a quantitative act, that it is enough after a while. And here Peter asks if 7 times was enough to forgive. Within Judaism, 3 times was sufficient to show a forgiving spirit. An example was given to Job as follows:
Job 33:29 Lo, all these things worketh God oftentimes (Heb. shalosh) with man,
Job 33:30 to bring back his soul from the pit, to be enlightened with the light of the living.
In Hebrew, the word shalosh is referring to a primitive number 3.
Peter believes he was showing generosity by saying 7. And the LORD responds that it is seven times seventy, a total completeness of times. We forgive indefinitely and we do not keep count.
Forgiveness is something that no-one finds easy to do and yet we cannot exclude "forgiveness" from our lives because it impacts the human condition to thrive and to grow as a community and to show our witnessing to the world.
Forgiveness is ultimately founded on the character of God.
Since Scriptural revelation is progressive the emphasis of Old Testament teaching on forgiveness tells us something about the foundation on which all forgiveness is based. The fact that forgiveness is seen as God's business prepares us for the fact that it is only because God is a God who is willing to forgive that forgiveness between people is both possible and desirable.
Please visit my website on the theology of forgiveness in the Old Testament on http://www.biblefootprint.com/2024/03/the-theology-of-forgiveness-in-old.html
The fact that Christians, particularly, are to be characterised by forgiveness, is based on the fact that they know what it is to be forgiven, something which would have been part of the consciousness of God's people as early as the days of Moses.
This rooting of forgiveness in the character of God prevents forgiveness to be ignored by those who do not see an obligation to forgive or by those would indiscriminately apply the term to a wide variety of emotional or psychological responses.
True disciples of Jesus are to forgive without keeping count.
Matthew 18:23 Therefore the Kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants.
Matthew 18:24 When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
Matthew 18:25 And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made.
Matthew 18:26 So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything."
Matthew 18:27 And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.
Ten thousand talents was a unit of weight equivalent to 34 kg. In New Testament times, it was a unit of monetary reckoning which was equivalent to 20 years' wages for a labourer. The reference here represents an incalculable debt.
The dramatic illustration by our LORD Jesus Christ gives us explanation on:
1. The massive debt represents the ransom for righteousness that people owe to the holy, righteous LORD God because of their sins. The complete inability ever to be able to pay for this debt.
Romans 6:23a For the wages of sin is death,
2. The patience and mercy of the LORD God to withhold His immediate righteous judgement that all humanity deserve for their sins. God's gracious provision of Christ's death and resurrection to pay the debt for sins and to break the power of sin:
Romans 6:23b but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our LORD.
The 2 central points of the parable are:
First, that the gift of salvation is immeasurably great:
Second, that unless a person is comparably merciful to others, God's mercy has not had a saving effect upon him and he/she will be liable to pay the consequences him/herself.
Matthew 18:29 So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, "Have patience with me, and I will pay you."
Matthew 18:30 He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt.
Matthew 18:31 When his fellow servant saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place.
Matthew 18:32 Then his master summoned him and said to him, "You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me.
100 denarii was still a large sum of money and was equivalent to 20 weeks of manual labour. When compared to the previous debt, it is relatively a small amount. Jesus portrays this servant's unwillingness to forgive even this amount, though he was forgiven his own insurmountable debt, revealed the servant's true wicked nature and that he had not been transformed by the forgiveness that his master had extended to him.
Matthew 18:33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?"
Matthew 18:34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.
Jesus is giving a metaphorical allusion to eternal punishment that the wicked servant justly deserves
Matthew 8:11 I tell you, many will come from east and west and recline at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
Matthew 8:12 while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Jesus was referring to the exact opposite of the rabbinical understanding which suggested that all descendants of Abraham are heirs of the Kingdom of God by right of ethnicity.
Matthew 18:35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."
The Sacrificial Levitical system of the Old Testament foreshadows the vicarious suffering and atonement of Christ.
As in many other areas of biblical theology the doctrine of forgiveness as it is fully developed in the New Testament can be traced back into the Old where it can be seen in embryonic form. This is most obviously so in the case of the ceremonial and sacrificial regulations and their subsequent fulfilment by God in Christ, which opened up for us a whole new ways of possible relationships with Him and with one another.
This is the theme of the book of Hebrews (chapter 10 - Christ sacrifice once and for all). The Old Testament sacrifices were not desired by God because of any intrinsic value they possessed. They were ordained for the time when Mosaic Covenant was in force but not for the future time. The OT laws have been abolished in order to establish the second and establish obedience to God's will. The sacrifices had to be abolished in order for God's moral and spiritual will for His people be done.
The will of God provides sanctification through a different, onetime offering, namely, the body of Jesus Christ, His physical death.
In the light of Christ's atonement aspects of the Old Testament atonement and even some of the promises of the prophets are seen in sharper focus.
Through the provision of the scapegoat (Leviticus 16:20-22) and the general sacrificial system, God illustrated his willingness to overlook the sins of his people because they had been paid for, borne away by someone who was sinless and yet took all our sins on His body.
The LORD God has no call to remember the sins of the repentant sinner. Isaiah uses identical language as he looks forward to the ultimate scapegoat sacrifice who will bear the sins of the people (Isaiah 53:8-12).
This fulfilment of the sacrificial system, without which there would be no forgiveness, in the death of Christ, reminds us above all that forgiveness is costly. The idea of sacrifices in the OT implies cost of animals, but it is increased exponentially when one sees a perfect man, Jesus Christ, becoming the sacrifice rather than a perfect lamb.
Shalom brothers and sisters. Let us examine ourselves and seek if we have wronged anyone. Jesus gave us a prayer and daily we must ask God to forgive our debts as we also forgive our debtors (Matt. 6:12).
Forgiveness is the 5th petition in the LORD's prayer.
Firstly it is a prayer for the restoration of personal fellowship with God when fellowship has been hindered by sin. When we sin we cause the Holy Spirit sorrow. That is why we must ask for forgiveness and God is gracious to forgive.
Ephesians 4:30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption.
Secondly, those who have received such forgiveness are so moved with gratitude toward God that they also eagerly forgive those who are debtors to them.
Confession and repentance are to be achieved to have fellowship within the Body of Christ. Apostle Paul says that a believer who offends another believer must be addressed graciously but firmly, else the accused will be treated as an unbeliever (1 Corinthians 5).
Many people choose to forget those who hurt them or forget about forgiving anyone they offended. It is less messy. But it does not serve the Body of Christ. Why?
It is important to follow the administrative stages of forgiveness within the Body of Christ to restore fellowship, both divine and human.
Stages of Forgiveness
1. The one Sinned against forgives in the heart.
Ephesians 4:32 be kind one to another tender-hearted forgiving one another even as God in Christ forgave you.
When somebody sins against you, you must immediately forgive them in your heart so that bitterness does not arise in your heart and fester. You just say: LORD I choose right now in the name of Jesus because He has forgiven me so much so that I can forgive that brother or sister who sinned against me.
2. Your confront the offender to forgive publicly until offender repents.
You approach the offender graciously and you tell the person that he or she is causing you to stumble and you must wait and hear that the person apologizes.
3. Once you hear the person's repentance, you tell the person publicly that he or she is forgiven.
We apologize to repent. Forgiveness is a gift given by the other person.
May our repentance be sincere. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death (2 Corinthians 7:10).
Grief that comes from God is characterized by repentance, i.e., remorse caused by having lost God’s approval and the consequent resolve to reverse one’s conduct and live for God.
Worldly grief. Grief that comes from the world, i.e., a remorse brought about by losing the world’s approval, leads to a resolve to regain that approval, and this produces death, or divine judgment.
There cannot be peace in the Body of Christ when true followers hold resentment in their hearts against one another. Be gracious and address it in a timely manner. Call the elders to help. But do not let any resentment fester in your heart.
We are redeemed and we must reflect that redemption and be as generous as our God has been to us and extend that love to one another.
Prayer
Father LORD God we have learnt a lot in these simple moments in Matthew 18. The truths are simple yet they are far from being simplistic. They are straight forward and unambiguous. They are unmistakably your highest form of restoration and redemption reconciliation. You desire, LORD, to heal and to patch, to save the sheep that has lost the way, the one that has gone astray. Father I pray that we would be part of that process of forgiveness ourselves.
In Jesus Name
Amen
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