“Then Peter came and said to him, ‘Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? As many as seven times?’” Matthew 18:21
The easiest person to forgive should be our brother in Christ. If anyone understands the grace we have each received for our own sin it should be two Christians. If anyone should be eager to demonstrate that same forgiveness we have each received ourselves it should be two Christians. Yet too often it is easier to forgive an unbeliever than a brother in Christ. We are quicker to forgive the co-worker who takes credit for our work, the neighbor who does not respect our property, even the neighbor who gossips, than the Christian brother or sister who lets us down.
Perhaps it is easier because we expect more from another member of the body of Christ. We look at a person filled with the Holy Spirit who treasures the glory of God and cannot make sense of their stumbling. In those moments when we are most hurt or feel most betrayed, it is not just our own loss we feel; it is also a sense of betrayal of the Lord. We simply expect more from another Christian—at times more than we should.
It is the brother in Christ who feels the weight of their error more than the unbeliever, particularly a Christian earnestly pursuing holiness. The apostle Paul expressed what all of us have felt in our sin when he said, “For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.” The Christian who has wronged us and asks for forgiveness is waging war against the law of sin that dwells in their members and desperately pursuing the renewal of their mind to be conformed to the image of Christ. It is the Christian crying out, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death!” How much more quickly should we extend forgiveness to our Christian brother or sister?
Too often we forget the grace we ourselves have received. We look at the sin of another and shake our heads in disgust, forgetting that we are equally guilty of shifting our gaze from the holiness of God and that our own sin crucified Christ. How many times should we forgive the same brother for their sin? What should we do when the brother in Christ comes back again for forgiveness? And again? And again? Jesus says not just seven times, but seventy times seven.
We are that servant in the parable who received forgiveness for a debt we could never repay, how could we not be eager to forgive another their debt to us? As Christians our attitude toward the brother in Christ asking forgiveness should be eagerness to forgive. Not begrudging, not delaying, not as the brother of the prodigal son, but a burning desire to show the same grace and mercy we ourselves have received.
As the Christians in our culture become more conspicuous, the testimony of our lives matters even more. Our actions and heart toward our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ says more about what we believe about the gospel than any words we profess. Our witness to the watching world should be as people who are ready to forgive anyone for anything who calls on the name of Jesus.
Because Jesus did the same for us.
