“Then Peter came up and said to Him, ‘Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’ Jesus said to him, ‘I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.’”
Matthew 18:21-22, ESV
Forgiveness can feel overwhelming, almost impossible, especially when the person who wronged us shows no remorse. It’s challenging to forgive someone who might not deserve it, and often, those who hurt us will never apologize. So, what do we do then?
In the midst of the pain caused by others, we might find ourselves questioning God’s sovereignty. We may think, “Did God not see what they just did? Did God not hear that hurtful statement? Am I really called to forgive someone who hurt me so deeply?”
In Matthew 18, Peter asks Jesus a question many of us have pondered: “Should I really keep forgiving this person when they keep doing the same thing?” Jesus responds by saying, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy times seven.” In this passage, Jesus is teaching us that forgiveness knows no bounds.
Billy Graham once said, “Forgiveness does not come easily to us, especially when someone we have trusted betrays our trust. And yet if we do not learn to forgive, we will discover that we can never really rebuild trust.”
Forgiveness is difficult, especially when we are hurting. In those moments, holding onto bitterness might feel justified. However, we serve a God who fights for us, and He calls us to forgive because He is good and merciful. Forgiveness, ultimately, is a gift to ourselves. It is releasing the things we cannot control and accepting them for what they are.
We cannot change the ways people have hurt us. I’ve spent years wishing things were different, hoping people would choose other paths, and longing for outcomes to align with my desires. But when I finally let go, the weight lifted.
As Billy Graham wisely said, “Forgiveness is one of the most beautiful words in the human vocabulary. How much pain and unhappy consequences could be avoided if we all learned the meaning of this word!”
He is absolutely right. So much pain could be avoided if we learned to forgive quickly, just as Jesus instructs us in Matthew 18. Forgiveness is not just about freeing the other person; it’s about freeing ourselves.