Matthew 18 Verse 21: “Then Peter came to Him and said Lord, how many times could my brother sin against me and i forgive him? As many as seven times”
.Peter asked the Lord: “Lord, how many times if a person sins against me, shall I forgive him? Seven times?”-that’s a perfect number (Matthew 18:21).
Jesus said: “No, seventy times seven” -four hundred and ninety (Matthew 18:22). And, by inference, He didn’t mean you stopped at four hundred ninety-one.
What our Lord says is, “Get the mathematics out of it. Don’t keep score. Forgiveness has no limit. Forget the math.” Forgive freely, even if you have to chase somebody in order to forgive them.
Now, if somebody comes to you and says, “I want you to forgive me.” We should not say, “Don’t worry about it.”
This is a wrong response. We are to say, “I forgive you. I forgive you.” This is very important.
You see, sometimes, when we do wrong, we don’t go to another individual and say, “Forgive me.” We say, “If I have hurt your feelings, I’m sorry. I want to apologize.”
The word apologize comes from a Greek word, apologia, which means, “to make a defense.” In apologetics, we’re defending the faith.assurance acceptance grace mercy
So many of us want to apologize. What we’re doing is really defending ourselves. If you’ve wronged somebody, don’t apologize and say, “Would you forgive me? I was wrong. I was wrong.”
It’s not an apology that I want. I want forgiveness. And, if somebody has wronged you, don’t say, “Oh, forget it. Never mind.” Say, “I forgive you.” Do it fully. Then it’s buried in the grave of God’s forgetfulness.
Forgiveness is a powerful thing and the Lord Himself has forgiven us, when we asked, and is transforming us into the people He created us to be.
Forgiveness is transforming, transforming for the giver and receiver, do not take it lightly
God Bless
OFJ