Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness

Q: How many times did Jesus tell Peter to forgive?

• a. 170
• b. 70 times 7
• c. 700

When Peter asked how many times he should forgive someone, Jesus told him a parable. One day a king decided to collect the money people had borrowed from him. A man who owed millions of dollars and couldn’t pay was brought to the king. The king declared that the man, his wife, his children, and all his belongings should be sold to pay the debt. The man begged for more time to pay the debt, and the king canceled the debt. The man didn’t have to pay back the money.

The same man who had been forgiven the millions of dollars went and found a servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He demanded the man pay him immediately. The servant begged for more time to pay, but the man had him thrown into prison.

When the king heard about this, he was angry. He’d forgiven the man millions, but the man would not forgive his servant thousands. The king had the man thrown into prison.

Jesus used this story to show Peter he must forgive others just as God had forgiven him. When Peter asked if he had to forgive someone seven times, Jesus told him to forgive 70 times 7. He wasn’t telling Peter to forgive 490 times and then to stop forgiving. He was telling Peter he had to forgive over and over again in the same way God forgives.

For You

There may be someone who hurts you every chance he or she gets. God says to forgive the person each time. That doesn’t mean you have to make yourself available to get hurt by that person, but that you need to let go of the anger or desire for revenge and let God deal with it.

Answer: b

Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”   Matthew 18:21-22

(The Whole Story: Matthew 18:21-35)