Enough Is Not Enough

Most of us are willing to forgive others when they wrong us, but how much is enough. Perhaps we hold to the baseball based adage, 'three strikes and you're out'! Has there been someone who just kept on offending you even though you had forgiven them once... twice... even three times? Should you keep on forgiving them?

In New Testament days the standard man had set for forgiveness was a maximum of three times. After that no forgiveness was required. So when Peter asked Jesus in Matthew 18:21, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" he (Peter) thought he was being quite generous in his suggestion. He must have been quite surprised to hear Jesus answer, "I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven." Now some of us might do the math and conclude that 490 times would be the limit. However, Jesus was saying there should be no limit to our forgiveness.

To illustrate the reasoning for such extravagant forgiveness Jesus told Peter a story. A servant owed his master ten thousand talents which someone has calculated would be about a million dollars in today's money. When the servant could not pay and faced losing everything he had including his freedom, he begged the master for patience. The master responded with compassion and completely canceled the debt. In turn the servant demanded repayment of a debt of a hundred denarii which someone has calculated as being a few dollars in today's money. When that servant could not pay he was thrown in prison by the very one who had been forgiven so much.

The point Jesus made was that we have been forgiven a debt of sin that we could never repay. That forgiveness was obtained by Jesus own death on the cross. In turn we are expected to forgive others rather than being like the unforgiving servant in the story. The same truth had been taught by Jesus in the Beatitudes when he said, "Blessed are the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." As we deal with those who may offend us in some way, we must remember how much our sin offended God and yet He still forgave us. Then as we carry out our life and continue to offend him we find that He forgives us again and again. We can do no less for others. We must follow the example God has set for us. The result will be God's blessing upon us and an impacting witness on others.