Confronting, Repenting and Forgiving – all our Duty

Esther 1-2; Psalms 150; Luke 17 

“…’If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, “I repent, forgive him.” So you also, when you have done everything you were told to do, should say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.”’”

Luke 17:3, 10

Jesus defines normal behavior in a community of disciples to include being sinned against, rebuking those who have sinned against us, repenting when rebuked for our sin, and forgiving those who repent to us. If this pattern is repeated seven times in a day by the same offender, Jesus calls us to forgive each time.

How normal is it for us to courageously confront sin in others if they wound us?

How normal is it for us to view this pattern of dealing with sin in relationships as our basic duty as a Christ-follower?

When we understand our unworthiness to receive God’s repeated forgiveness of us, will we not extend that same mercy and grace to one another?

Without the courage to confront sin in one another, the Holy Spirit’s work of sanctification proceeds at a much slower pace in our lives. It takes humility to rebuke one another in love and to receive that rebuke as “normal” and then to repent.

To what new levels of relationship is Jesus calling us for his glory?