Seventy times Seven

Mt. 18:35

"So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."

Jesus used a parable to teach forgiveness. In this parable the master came to settle the accounts with his servants. One of those servants owed him 10,000 talents. Since he couldn't pay it, he and his family were ordered to be sold to pay the debt. After begging the master for patience, the master had pity on him, released him, and paid the debt in full. What mercy and forgiveness! How like what Jesus did for me! I was in an unbelievable debt of sin, but He forgave me, released me from sin's bondage, and gave me new life at the ultimate cost to Himself. With such forgiveness and mercy as this, how could I do less than extend that forgiveness to others? 

But back to the parable, the forgiven servant then went to collect from someone who owed him. Did he show them mercy? No, instead he put the man in prison. No forgiveness at all!  The other fellow servants reported all this to the master who called for the servant to come and face him for his day of reckoning. He was jailed until his debt was paid. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart."  What am I really accomplishing by having an unforgiving spirit? Am I ungrateful for the forgiveness God has shown me? How strong is my flesh that makes me want to respond to others in a different manner than God has responded to me! 

How many times should I forgive? What if the same person is a repeat offender? Jesus answered that by saying seventy times seven which is really an unlimited amount. Since God the Father forgives me repeatedly and many times for the same sins, I need to forgive and keep forgiving. It is really only the person who does not acknowledge his poverty of spirit and refuses to mourn over that sin that refuses to forgive. No wonder the 1st and 2 nd Beatitudes concerned the poor in spirit and mourners. It is those people are blessed because their lives have been transformed. They are living in the goodness and riches of God's grace, a grace which gives forgiveness to all over and over again.

Father,

Keep me constantly forgiving as You have forgive me. Give me a heart that knows, confesses, and repents of my sin. Fill my heart with Your forgiveness so that it might flow out to others.

In Jesus name,

Amen