3 So watch yourselves. “If your brother or sister sins against you, rebuke them; and if they repent, forgive them. 4 Even if they sin against you seven times in a day and seven times come back to you saying ‘I repent,’ you must forgive them.” 5 The apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith!” 6 He replied, “If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be uprooted and planted in the sea,’ and it will obey you. (Luke 17:3-6)
Here, the Lord Jesus teaches His disciples that if a brother sins against you, you should rebuke him; if he repents, you forgive him. Even if he sins against you seven times in a single day and returns seven times to say, “I repent,” you are to forgive him. “seven times a day” signifies complete, continuous forgiveness. Realizing that they could not have unlimited forgiveness with their own strength, the apostles asked the Lord to increase their faith. The Lord Jesus told them that with faith as small as a mustard seed, one could accomplish the impossible, such as commanding a mulberry tree to be uprooted and planted in the sea. This illustrates that, by relying on God, all things are possible, including the ability to have unlimited forgiveness.
14 For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins. (Matthew 6:14-15)
In the Lord’s Prayer, the Lord Jesus teaches His disciples that if they forgive others for their transgressions, their heavenly Father will likewise forgive them; conversely, if they don’t forive others, their heavenly Father will not forgive them. Therefore, to receive forgiveness from God, we should first forgive others.
May God bless you and your family!
