If your brother or sister sins, go and point out their fault, just between the two of you. If they listen to you, you have won them over. (Matthew 18:15)
Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord,
how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against
me? Up to seven times?”
Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven
times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)
“You
have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But
I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, (Matthew
5:43-44)
Let’s return to what we need to do when the going gets
rough. This is another tough one. When the going gets rough, we’re to forgive.
In fact, we’re to forgive our brothers and sisters up to 77 times (or some
translations say 70 times 7 or 490 times!) I don’t think it matters what the
sin is that we’re forgiving. If the brother slanders you that many times,
forgive him. If a sister commits adulty that many times, forgive her. Or, if it’s
the same sin, committed once, but you repeatedly find yourself responding in
unforgiveness, forgive them again until it becomes a habit to forgive.
God’s principles about those whom we are to forgive seem to
require that we forgive whether or not the person repents or changes his ways.
We are not to seek revenge, period. The point is not whether or not they have
sinned or are likely to continue to sin – the point is your response. Are you
going to hold on to that person and what he/she did for the rest of your life,
even if the person never does it again? Or are you going to refuse to allow
that sin to control both of you?
And keep in mind that we are to forgive our brothers and
sisters, whom we should hope have no wish to harm us. They’re weak, just as we
have been and will be weak. There are those who do mean to destroy us – should
we cut ourselves off from people who harm us because they’re weak when we may
need them to help us survive people who harm us because they hate?
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