Council Community Church

Pastor's Corner

HOW MANY TIMES SHOULD WE FORGIVE OTHERS?

            I would like to take an informal survey of those who read this paper to find out your response to this question. You may contact me with your answer and any reasons you may choose to give in support of your number at email wffjr@ctcweb.net or Wayne Freedman 2052 Missman Road, Council, Idaho 83612.

            Who we are as a community is at least in part defined by our motto, “Council, A Community That Cares.”  As a “A Community That Cares” how many times should we forgive others if we truly care about them?

            This is not only an issue today, but it was an issue back in Jesus’ day as well.

            One day Peter, in Matthew 18:21 came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me?”  What a practical issue to bring up.  Jesus had just finished giving them instructions on how to resolve conflicts between individuals, and so it was natural for someone to wonder about how many times we should seek reconciliation, and Peter, the outspoken disciple, was just the one to do it.

            Now Jewish tradition of that day said,  “If a man commits an offense once, they forgive him;  if he commits and offense a second time, they forgive him;  if he commits and offense a third time, they forgive him;  the fourth time they do not forgive him.”  [Rabbi Jose ben Jehuda] 

            Their understanding of this limit came from the Old Testament book of Amos where God, through His prophet Amos, pronounced a series of judgments on surrounding nations and introduced them with the statement, “For three sins of  . . . even for four, I will not turn back my wrath.”  Their reasoning went something like this.  If God will forgive three times, but on the forth time withdraws His forgiveness and moves to wrath then that’s good enough for us.  We will only forgive up to three times, but when the forth offense occurs forgiveness will not be offered.

            Peter was feeling especially generous for immediately following his question he suggests, “Up to seven times?”  Now that’s over two times the tradition of his time.

            If you were to try to estimate the tradition of our time, how many times would you say people usually forgive others before they say, ”That’s enough, no more forgiveness!” and withdraw their grace?

            If you want to check out Jesus’ answer, you can go to Matthew 18:22.  We’ll discuss it next week in this column along with any responses I receive to my survey. 

            Meanwhile, feel free to forgive because we are, “A Community That Cares.”