“If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.”
Luke 17:3-4
My view of things tells me that if the same person comes to me more than twice and asks for forgiveness, the same day, there’s a problem. I don’t know, but the person must not understand something or really, what I would think would be that the person is never really sincere about repentance. I would be the kind to judge and think that the person does not deserve my forgiveness and needs to be rebuked and shaken “Look! I’m not gonna keep closing my eyes on your sins just because Jesus tells me to forgive you. You really don’t seem to understand what repentance is, you shouldn’t need to come to me all the time, claiming repentance! Straighten your ways man.” That is not what Jesus commands me to do. And I partially know why.
It makes no sense to me to simply grant forgiveness to a guy who sins, repents, sins, repents, sins… all day long. But the truth is, I am exactly like this guy who sins and repents and sins again. I am always going to God asking for forgiveness, claiming Jesus’ blood, and I should do that more than seven times a day believe me. And God always forgives. Who am I to believe I can judge someone and refrain from forgiving, based on my own little knowledge, lack of love and so-called wisdom? Some people would probably argue that we need to discern and judge between spirits, which is true, but about forgiveness, Jesus says, you ought to forgive the repentant soul, no matter how many times he comes to you, no matter how true the repentance looks like, you are not in a position to judge of it and you yourself need to be forgiven every day.
This is probably common knowledge to you. I hope so. I’m just learning to be humble and let Christ be Christ in me.
8 Comments
I understand where your feelings are coming from. It feels wrong to keep forgiving someone for doing the same thing over and not really being sorry. The reason we still need to forgive is if we want God to forgive us, we need to forgive others and God be the judge.
I wonder what happens to a true child of God who at one point or the other in his life refuses to forgive his fellow.
I wonder how this verse works. God won’t forgive him for not forgiving. But what does it mean? Since the Christian man is saved and forgiven?
I guess I don’t spend a lot of time thinking about that and… people don’t teach or preach about it either.
I’m just a 16 year old and have been serving the Lord for several years now. After i read your comment i decided to look up some bible verses concerning this topic, because we can count on the bible.
Mark 11–24Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. 25And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive him, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins.”
The way it seems to me is that we may have been forgiven, but if we hold anything against anyone, than we won’t be forgiven for that. God is still the one and only judge on Judgement Day, so i can’t judge anyone, because that wouldn’t be fair, or right. We just need to pray for guidance in the situations we are in.
Belinda,
I think you’re on the right tract.
It is plain that those who reject Jesus won’t be forgiven their sins and so spend eternity in hell. What about children of God who are already forgiven, but here and there do not forgive their neighbors? How is God’s “unforgiveness” going to affect their lives or their eternity?
I do not expect you to have any answers, since the Bible (to the best of my knowledge) does not tell us more details about this issue. Or maybe I simply don’t see it.
I was searching my bible for quite a while yesterday, and finally found some verses. I looked up forgiveness and there are actually more than you could imagine. Joseph forgiving his brothers for all the wrong they did to him. (Genesis 50) The Psalms are filled with psalmists praising God for His Mercy and Forgiveness. In Acts 7, Stephen asks for forgiveness of those who persecuted him.
I opened up to Colossians 3 and found some “rules” for Holy Living. To me it seems that Holy Living is when we are for after we repented and God forgave us all our sin, and then we live holy, just like Jesus. If we give in to temptation, we have to be truly sorry, ask God for Grace and then we can trust He forgave us. Sometimes, we do sin without knowing it. In those cases, God will somehow lay it on your heart that what you did was wrong. It may during a sermon, when spending time with God, or however He chooses. As christians, we want to live as Jesus did, because that is one of our greatest desires after he has entered our hearts.
Rules for Holy Living
1Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your[a] life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.
5Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry. 6Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.[b] 7You used to walk in these ways, in the life you once lived. 8But now you must rid yourselves of all such things as these: anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. 9Do not lie to each other, since you have taken off your old self with its practices 10and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. 11Here there is no Greek or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.
12Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.
15Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom, and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. 17And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
I am praying for you that you may find what you need from God. I pray that if it is you who is stuggling with forgiving someone, that you may do it not because you have too, but because you want to be more like Him.
The questions you ask bring me to search through His word for answers. I usually don’t question anything that he says, probably because i have grown up around His church. I hope that you keep looking for what you are wondering, and spend lots of time with Him, finding answers in His time. There are questions though that we will have to wait to receive answers from when we are face to face with Jesus.
Thinking back to what i wrote i made it sound all simple and easy. Well, it isn’t. I struggle to in doing the right thing. I am not perfect either. I just try to Glorify God in everything i do, and if i mess up, i am sorry and He is gracious.
I do not believe I need answers to all my questions and I do not believe that this particular question (on what does it mean that God won’t forgive someone when that someone is already in Christ)I do not think anybody can find biblical foundations for any answer they could come up with. Maybe the resemblance of the answer, but nothing black or white. Why? Because (to the best of my knowledge) you simply won’t find it in the Bible.
Most questions I ask are not necessarily questions I am asking to myself. I ask questions to challenge someone to think more critically or simply because I know there is no answer but I find the question quite interesting.
This particular question was not something I am actually wondering about (because I know I won’t really find answers - but it pushes me and people, to think more), not something I am struggling with right now. My post was an account of the things I had meditated about while reading the Word.
Thanks for your zeal in searching the Scriptures.
You say you usually never question what God says in His Word because you grew up around His church. I think that God is not to be questioned (in the sense that we do not need to understand His ways and He obviously knows best) - but I believe that God wants us to have questions about His Word and His ways. I don’t understand everything in the Bible, but I believe that it makes sense to God. If I simply accept everything without asking myself questions (like the one I just talked about), I won’t grow, my heart will not be challenged to look deeper into God’s Word and to spend time in prayer to find at least the resemblance of an answer. God knows I don’t get everything and some things are quite outrageous for me to read, but these are opportunities for me to seek God’s mind and if I don’t find any answers, I simply trust Him, knowing I am finite and He is infinite.
Hey Gabrielle!
How are you doing?
Can you do me a huge favour? Can you please edit me above posts somehow so that my full name shows up? It was a terrible mistake to type in my name and i realize it comes up on search engines, and well i would appreciate the privacy. I still enjoy visiting your blog and am praying for you. With love,
Sorry I haven’t noticed your comment before today! I’ll edit your name, no worries.
Post a Comment