We have all experienced situations where we
are at ought with someone. And not once only but many times. Sometimes the
cause of disagreement are simple, petty little issues. At other times the cause
could be huge and would lead to personal hurt, and we view the person as if he
had just committed the “unpardonable” sin. It becomes more difficult when you
are hurt more than once, by the same person over the same issue. Here’s the sticky
question of “How many times should I forgive a person who had wronged me again
and again?” Peter came to Jesus asking that question. He wanted to know if it
was enough to forgive a person seven times. The Lord‘s answer must have been
humbling for him. He said that he should not only forgive seven times but
seventy times seven, which literally is forty-nine times.
Sometimes we find it extremely difficult to forgive a person once, let alone seven times. And here Jesus had made it even more difficult – seventy times seven. The Lord is not saying that we should bear with all bitterness and anger and simply forgive and forget, and pretend as if nothing had happened. He is encouraging us to make forgiveness and reconciliation a goal in our life’s journey. If we need to tackle the problem head on, we must. And even though confrontation is never easy, we must do it. But there is one thing we must focus on. We must always confront the issue with forgiveness in mind and not revenge.
Think of it this way, if we are keeping scores on the number of times we have forgiven a person, we have in reality not forgiven him. We have merely postponed the time we intend to exact the revenge. The “seventy times seven” is Jesus’ teasing way of saying, stop counting and go for Nike’s motto – Just do it!
Sometimes we find it extremely difficult to forgive a person once, let alone seven times. And here Jesus had made it even more difficult – seventy times seven. The Lord is not saying that we should bear with all bitterness and anger and simply forgive and forget, and pretend as if nothing had happened. He is encouraging us to make forgiveness and reconciliation a goal in our life’s journey. If we need to tackle the problem head on, we must. And even though confrontation is never easy, we must do it. But there is one thing we must focus on. We must always confront the issue with forgiveness in mind and not revenge.
Think of it this way, if we are keeping scores on the number of times we have forgiven a person, we have in reality not forgiven him. We have merely postponed the time we intend to exact the revenge. The “seventy times seven” is Jesus’ teasing way of saying, stop counting and go for Nike’s motto – Just do it!
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