Thought of the Day !!

     Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”

     “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!

                               Matthew 18:21-22 (NLT)

Like Peter we want to limit the amount of forgiveness that we will give to someone.  Personally, I think Peter was probably thinking to himself that seven times was a pretty good number of times.  It actually seems like a lot of forgiveness and is more than most anyone else would bother to forgive someone.  But this was still limited forgiveness. 

How many of us don’t want to go as far as Peter did?  How often is forgiveness not even an option?  Or maybe you’re willing to give a person a second chance.  But a second failure would mean absolutely no more forgiveness of the offense…whatever it might be?

Jesus answered Peter; “…not seven times…but seventy times seven”.  What he means is that we are to continue to forgive, no matter what. 

Forgiveness is not approving or excusing or even pardoning what someone has done.  What forgiveness does is this.  It chooses not to keep a record of the wrongs done to one self.  It refuses to punish someone for what they did…unless it was a crime and there is legal punishment involved.

Forgiveness is an inner condition where we rid ourselves of bitterness instead of holding on to it and allowing it to pull us down.  So take Jesus’ advice / teaching / command, and forgive.

In the love of Christ,

greg