Luke 17
Read: Luke 17
What is easier for you to do, hold a grudge or forgive someone who you think doesn’t deserve forgiveness? For me, it is definitely to hold a grudge. It takes a lot to make me mad, but once you do, I do not easily let it go. As we look at verses 1-4, Jesus says “If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him.” This seems pretty straightforward. There are two conditional statements, but it is always easier to say than to do.
One thing we see is that sin permits rebuke, which means confrontation. I don’t know about you, but I don’t like confrontation. I would much rather just hold my anger in and despise you without you knowing, but that’s not healthy and I know it. When we are wronged, Jesus gives us permission to call people out on it. We just need to make sure, we are in the right mindset to do that with grace, understanding that it is possible that that person did not mean to harm us.
Another thing we see is that repentance warrants forgiveness. True, it is easier to forgive a repentant person than an unrepentant person, but it still isn’t easy if they have really hurt you. But as imperfect people, we must understand this and offer forgiveness liberally. Jesus suffered far worse for our sins than we will ever suffer because of another person’s sins, so we are called to forgive because we have been forgiven so much.
But what if they don’t repent? Jesus doesn’t really say anything about that here. I think what Jesus is talking about here is forgiveness with reconciliation. Sometimes when we are sinned against, it is not wise or safe to reconcile with someone who is unrepentant. But that does not mean we should just hold a grudge. That sort of mindset leads to bitterness. We need to forgive and let God be the one who deals with them. Who knows, maybe one day they will repent… but for now, don’t let a person’s lack of repentance lead you to a life of bitterness. Otherwise you are giving that person more power than they deserve over you. Let it go, and let God deal with them.
The last thing I want to touch on in this chapter is thankfulness. In the story of the ten lepers, Jesus healed ten and only one came back to thank him. That’s probably a very accurate percentage of how thankful most of us are. God has forgiven us of so much. He deserves our thanksgiving and praise. When we realize and thank God for what he has done to forgive us, we are much more likely to forgive others when they wrong us.
