{"id":5031,"date":"2014-02-13T00:05:56","date_gmt":"2014-02-13T08:05:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/?p=5031"},"modified":"2014-02-12T18:55:30","modified_gmt":"2014-02-13T02:55:30","slug":"running-the-numbers-on-forgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/2014\/02\/13\/running-the-numbers-on-forgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"Running the Numbers on Forgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Peter came and said to Him, \u201cLord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?\u201d <\/p>\n

\tJesus said to him, \u201cI do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cFor this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. But since he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.<\/p>\n

\t\u201cSo the slave fell to the ground and prostrated himself before him, saying, \u2018Have patience with me and I will repay you everything.\u2019 And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, \u2018Pay back what you owe.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\u201cSo his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, \u2018Have patience with me and I will repay you.\u2019 <\/p>\n

\t\u201cBut he was unwilling and went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what was owed. So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. <\/p>\n

\t\u201cThen summoning him, his lord said to him, \u2018You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. \u2018Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?\u2019\u201d (Matthew 18:21-33)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\tWhenever someone bumped into him, a friend of mine would mutter as a joke, \u201cthat\u2019s four hundred eight-nine.\u201d Peter was looking for a number like that. Just how often did he have to forgive someone?
\n\tJesus took Peter\u2019s suggestion of seven times and multiplied it beyond reason. Jesus wasn\u2019t suggesting that Peter keep careful records. Jesus meant that forgiveness was never-ending. But is that practical? If my spouse beats me today and begs forgiveness tomorrow, do I have to keep forgiving him? Do we give the convicted embezzler another job in the bank? Jesus told a parable to illustrate his point about the seventy times seven. In the parable, after forgiving the debt, did the servant\u2019s master then lend him more money?<\/p>\n

\tJesus point about forgiveness was simple: since God has forgiven us, so why can\u2019t we forgive each other? Forgiveness means that we don\u2019t hold an offense against another person. But it doesn\u2019t necessarily mean we give them opportunities to sin again.<\/p>\n

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Peter came and said to Him, \u201cLord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?\u201d Jesus said to him, \u201cI do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"yes"},"categories":[18,17,16],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5031"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5033,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5031\/revisions\/5033"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5031"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/nettelhorst.com\/blog1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}