“Be on your guard. If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and comes back to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” (vv. 3-4)

We’re good at the first part:

“If your brother sins, rebuke him….”

Churches and church people have been successful judging sinners and cutting them off for generations. We’ve read the Bible. We know where the lines are. And we stand ready to wag our fingers and close our doors.

That would be a really impressive display of biblical religion…

…if it weren’t for the rest of Jesus’ instruction.

Sin reaps a rebuke, yes, but repentance demands forgiveness.

The Jesus Way is radical. It requires grace. It doesn’t ask you to forgive if you think the other deserves it; it simply commands you to forgive the repentant. It makes us—you and me and the church—the earthly representation of heaven’s mercies. And it does so, with a view to repetition and and persistence and practice.

Yes, there are times when the nature of transgression forces you to put up boundaries. That’s reaping and sowing. But the boundary lines in your heart, when you consider their repentance, still need grace-afforded soft spots.

We’re good at the first part, the rebuke part.

How are we measuring up in forgiveness?

— Tyler