Luke 17:3
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
It is too bad that many believers are not as accepting toward the fallen brother as the Saviour is. Jesus tells the parable about a brother who trespasses against another brother. Jesus says that if the one who has trespassed repents, they are to be forgiven. Jesus goes even further by saying that if this brother repents, is forgiven, but goes back and does the same thing again seven different times in one day, that we are to forgive them. Jesus is more interested in bringing someone back than He is in throwing them out never to be used again. I find several principles in this parable that we need to focus on.
First, brethren will do wrong. By the way, when I am talking about brethren, I am talking about you as well. Too often, we think this is talking about others, but it will happen to all because all are sinners. To hold the brethren to an expectation that the Saviour did not hold us to is wrong. Yes, we are to do right, and we should hold ourselves to a higher expectation, but we must understand that at the end of the day, everyone will do wrong at different times.
Second, brethren will do wrong more than once. Not only will brethren do wrong more than once, but they will do wrong more than once in one day. Jesus talked about this brother trespassing seven times in one day. This is hard to accept, but believers are not as good as they think they are. Likely, most every believer, including you, do wrong more than once a day. I know we hold ourselves in higher regard than God knows us to be, but most will do wrong many times. However, just because they do wrong many times does not mean they are not worth forgiving.
Third, repentance is the key to forgiveness. Jesus says, if he repent, forgive him. Notice that nowhere does the brother have to ask for forgiveness from the brethren when they do wrong, but they must repent to be forgiven. What is repentance? Repentance is turning from that which we do wrong. When those who do wrong make the turn to do right, it is at that moment that we are to forgive them.
Fourth, if they do wrong seven times and repent each time, we are to forgive them even if it happens on the same day. Imagine someone doing wrong, turning around to do right, but then turning back to do wrong; it is easy to become frustrated with this individual. However, Jesus commands us to forgive this person each time they repent. Repentance in this instance doesn't mean we won't do the same thing again; it means we intend not to do the same thing again. I often hear good people say that if a person truly repents that they will not go back to what they were doing wrong, but that is not what Jesus teaches in this parable. Peter did wrong over and over again, but he meant to do right. It is our responsibility to forgive this one who has trespassed once they have repented, even if they have done this before.
Forgiveness is the key to this whole parable. What is forgiveness? Forgiveness is giving the one who has trespassed a clean sheet of paper to rewrite their story. I would much rather allow people to rewrite a story of their lives than to bring up the old story of sin that marred their lives. Let us be forgiving believers who are more willing to forgive the sinner than to hold against them what God does not hold against them.
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