Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. (Matthew 18:21, 22 NIV)
Can you imagine forgiving someone seventy-seven times? How long would the time frame be to forgive that many times? Lets play with that! How much time could elapse from the original sin is committed against me to the seventy-seventh forgiveness event.
Here are my assumptions: If someone sins against you, you probably won't find out about it for awhile, let's say about two weeks. In that time, you find out who did it and then confront them. It probably will take a shorter amount of time for the second sin event. Let's say it gets down to around a week after the first event. Obviously, if this person is sinning against you 77times you probably aren't best friends and you don't spend a lot of time with them. So lets say you average 9 days between finding out for all 77 events. That works out to 483 days or so, from the first sin to the 77th forgiveness. That's nearly a year and a half forgiving the same person.
Forgiveness can take time!
My guess is by the time you get to the 483rd day, you will understand what Jesus is trying to say. There is really no end on the number of times. You forgive someone. Is there an end to Gods forgiveness? ABSOLUTELY NOT! We are to do the same, no end to forgiveness for the ones who sin against you. Forgiveness is not to be withheld. Simple as that!
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