DAD'S RAMBLINGS -- FORGIVING OFFENSES

DAD'S RAMBLINGS – FORGIVING OFFENSES

"Then Peter came to Him and said, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.' " (Matthew 18:21-22)

We are all good at nursing offenses. We like to treat them as friends, especially when the offense is repeated over and over again. The resentment grows with each offense. It feels like a new hit on a wound that has not healed. Or like being stabbed again and again.

There is only one way to get rid of the pain of offense and that is forgiveness. This is not easy when the offense is committed repeatedly. My patience grows thin.

This is the setting for the parable Jesus gave of a servant who owed his master a huge amount of money and was not able to pay his debt. He appealed to his master for patience, but the master not only had patience, he graciously forgave the debt. Some time later, the servant lent a fellow-servant a small amount of money. The second servant was not able to repay the debt, and the first servant threw him into debtors prison. When the master heard about what had happened, he called the first servant on the carpet – the one he had forgiven such a large debt – and ordered that he be tortured until he paid the original debt.

Jesus drives home the point: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses' " (vs. 35). It is a dangerous thing to carry a grudge and not forgive our fellow-servants.

The Apostle Paul picked up on this when he wrote, "And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you" (Ephesians 4:32). When we think of how much God has forgiven us our trespasses against Him, it should make us be patient and gracious toward those who offend us. We violate His grace over and over again, and yet He forgives us over and over again. So should it be with us and our brothers and sisters.

Love, Dad