How Jesus Tells Us to Forgive

So watch yourselves. 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)

Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.” (Matthew 18:21-22)

Peter wanted Jesus to commend him for forgiving his brother seven times in one day. Instead, Jesus expanded the requirement to seventy-seven times. Some translations render this “seventy times seven,” that is, 490 times. Is there a difference between the two numbers? No! They are intended to represent an infinite amount of times. Jesus did not want Peter to keep count.

Although these numbers are figurative, let’s take them literally for a moment. Forgiving someone seven times in a day is hard enough. To get to seventy-seven sins, we would need eleven days in a row where the same person says that he repents seven times. Seventy times seven sins would take seventy straight days of this.

I know Christians who say that they forgive based upon the genuineness of the person’s repentance. Who would believe that someone is really repentant when he has to say he is repentant seven times daily seventy days in a row? No one!

Forgiveness does not depend on the number of times you are sinned against or on the magnitude of the sins. It does not depend on the sinner truly repenting or even on him saying he repents. Luke 17 and Matthew 18 do not tell us to refuse to forgive until he repents. We cannot base our forgiveness on his repentance and obey Jesus’ command at the same time. Jesus does not say, “If he does not repent do not forgive him,” and we are not allowed to judge the sincerity of his repentance before we forgive.

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