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Seventy Times Seven By Czar There is nothing quite liberating and comforting as being forgiven. To have wrong someone and hurt the congregation and then regretted and repent of it and then to be pardoned – what a relief, of gratitude. What a joy if God’s grace demonstrated by the offended to the offending person. What a joy if every Christians, forgiveness and love is the pursuit of their life. But it is sad to think some Christians were so busy of religious activity with no eye to see mercy, compassion and forgiveness, no hand to respond with compassion and no effort to bring relief of the Gospel. Very swift to instill discipline but slow to dispense grace How often shall we forgive person? Does God expect us to forgive? When is forgiveness called for? What if I choose not to forgive? Or what if there’s a certain limit? Matthew’s gospel contains a magnificent section on the subject of forgiveness. Here Jesus Christ gives the parable of Unmerciful Servant, a man who owed his master a lot of money and weren’t able to pay. So he fell down and asks for compassion and forgiveness. Being merciful and compassionate, the master forgives his servant of his debt. All of his debt had been written-off. However, this servant even though he has been forgiven of his debt, he himself is unwilling to forgive others. He throws his fellow servant to prison. And the Lord Jesus said, “This is totally unacceptable.” The man who have experience God’s forgiveness are accountable to display forgiveness towards others. That’s what Matthew 18:21-35 teaches. One of the classic examples of brethren failure to forgive is recorded in 2Corinthians 2:6-9. Here the Corinthian brethren refuse to welcome back with open arms the man they discipline for sinful act (1Cor.5:1-13) Instead of comforting and forgive the man, they put him on probation. To then the discipline is not enough. They want more. So Paul urged the Corinthians to welcome back the man. The man no longer need discipline, he needs forgiveness, mercy and comfort. The man needs restoration dignity and reaffirmation of love. This is the same theme Jesus Christ emphasizes in Matthew 18:21-35. When Peter asked Jesus Christ how often we should forgive a brother, Christ answered, “up to seventy times seven.” What Christ meant by this statement? Jesus Christ doesn’t mean that we should forgive a brother 490 times and then let then have it on 491. What Christ was aying, in forgiveness there is no limit. That is we have to forgive infinitely. To forgive someone infinitely is very generous, far more generous than what most do. What Christ meant is that we have to forgive on and on and on through eternity. Forgiveness is the matter of the Heart not of the mind. The minds will only kept records of wrongs. A spirit of forgiveness does not measure and limit the number of times it will forgive. The Corinthians lose sight of this wonderful value. They think that discipline is all judgment and no Grace. But the goal of discipline is not removal; it is restoration and reconciliation. God commanded us to pursue mercy. Not just simply to be merciful but “to love mercy” (Micah 5:8). In other words, command is not just to do the act of mercy, but also to delight to be merciful or to want to be merciful. The same way with forgiveness, God commanded us to freely, truly and liberally forgive someone. It was our joy to forgive someone. An unforgiving spirit doesn’t gain joy. An unforgiving spirit is sin, and should itself be confessed. The God of infinite mercy is very, out of pure compassion, to forgive the sins of those that humble themselves before Him. We should been more compassionate to the distress of our brothers, because we had experienced the same distress. We must from our heart forgive. We must seek and desire the welfare of those that offended us, not with anger; not with a lordly and overbearing mind; not with a love of finding others in fault, and with desire of inflicting discipline of the church; not with a harsh and unforgiving temper, but with love, gentleness, humility, patience, and with a readiness to forgive when wrong has been done. This is an essential qualification for restoring and recovering an offending brother. Our forgiveness should be as swift as our discipline. When we refuse to forgive someone who had repented, that person becomes confused and unproductive, wondering, “What else I must do? How else can I prove myself? Ultimately, bitterness sets in, and Satan claims another victory. Forgive SEVENTY TIMES EVEN. Live everything to God. He keeps an account (Deuteronomy 32:34), because He is the judge, and vengeance is His; but we must not, less we be found stepping into His throne. It is necessary for the preservation of unity within the Church. When there is division within the body of Christ, everyone suffers. Animosity, bitterness, vengefulness and resentfulness are obvious signs that something is wrong and the need for forgiveness is being ignored. God multiply His pardons and so should we (Psalm 78:38-40). And always remember, God can bring good out of horrendous circumstances. He is over all thins, good or bad. Forgive SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN. Remember, we still human, we won’t always agree with each other, and we will hurt and offend and anger each other as we bump along the path. But the way we deal with these disagreement and hurts and offenses can make all the differences. If you still keeping tally of their wrongs though they’ve repented, ask yourself one question: WHY?
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