Matthew 18:21-22 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?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

Jesus has just concluded His teaching about confronting sin and restoring people to fellowship. This naturally brought up a question in Peter’s mind about forgiveness. When Peter asks Jesus how often one should forgive another person, I’m sure Peter thought he was being generous in offering up to seven times. I know that I would be hard pressed to forgive someone that many times! Forgiving another person is difficult when I have been hurt.

Yet I am sure that Jesus stunned the disciples when He responded with a seemingly impossible number, a number that implies an unlimited number of times that we should be willing to forgive others. “How is this possible?” would be running through my mind if Jesus said this to me. Yet I realize that God Himself offers unlimited forgiveness to me through the sacrifice of Jesus. He is calling me to follow His example in extending forgiveness. I believe that through the power of His Spirit and grace I too can offer forgiveness to others.

Father, I praise you for the gift of Your Son, and through Him and Your Spirit the ability to extend forgiveness to others. May I be humble and willing to follow Your example in my relationships with others.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 27th, 2006 at 5:00 am and is filed under Daily Readings. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.