Jesus Teaches Forgiveness and Gratitude

Luke 17:1-4, 11-19

GOLDEN TEXT: “Be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you.”—Ephesians 4:32

THE term offenses as used in the first verse of today’s lesson evidently has the thought of trial. Jesus explained that it must needs he that these trials will come. The Scriptures indicate that the reason for the trials which God permits to come upon all the followers of the Master is that through them they may be prepared for joint-heirship with Him in the Kingdom.

We must not expect to escape temptations, trials, difficulties, perplexities, because only through these can we be developed, perfected in character. Only the tried ones could ever be declared overcomers. Sin, error, is all about us, and presented to us not only by the world and Satan, but also by the imperfections of our own flesh. If we be without trials, without temptations, without difficulties, we may be sure that we will never be overcomers and never receive the crown of glory and joint-heirship with our Lord, the Head, the Captain, the Leader of the overcomers.

While it is recognized that trials are a necessary part of the Christian life, the true follower of the Master will seek in every reasonable way possible to avoid being the cause of trial to fellow-members in the Body. This does not mean that he will compromise with evil, nor condone that which is wrong, but that he will not constitute himself a spiritual policeman and set himself up as a judge over the Lord’s people. It means furthermore, that he will not be a source of trial and offenses to his brethren in Christ, in the sense that he will lend himself to any scheme or effort which would tend to stumble them in the Narrow Way, or to lead them away from the true path of righteousness.

The word here rendered “offend,” and in the Revised Version “stumble,” is derived from the Greek word skandalon, and is closely related to our word scandal, which originally meant, “the stick of the trap on which the bait is laid, and which springs up and shuts the trap at the touch of the animal,” Hence our Lord does not merely mean whosoever will anger or ill-use one of His disciples, but worse still, whosoever will entrap, injure, hurt one of them spiritually.

If a person were drowned in the sea, it could do him no further harm, and be no barrier in any sense of the word to his future life in the resurrection. But should anyone entrap, scandalize, injure, one of the Lord’s little ones, to their spiritual injury, he (who caused the injury) will thereby subject himself to certain losses beyond the present life—he will suffer loss or injury in the resurrection life, provided for all mankind through the great redemptive sacrifice.

Our Lord does not state what will be the character of the loss or punishment that such an one will receive, but does intimate that its bearing upon his eternal interest and future will be so great that it would have been better for him to have had his earthly life shortened instead, and we all know how all mankind cling to every year of earthly life permitted.

As for those who may trespass against us, our Lord said that such should be rebuked and that if they repent they should be forgiven. Peter inquired, “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times, but, Until seventy times seven.”

In this, we should copy our Father in heaven. We should be very ready to forgive the blunders and errors of either natural or spiritual childhood, and to all the weak and inexperienced, even before they ask, we should manifest our willingness to forgive. And with all who trespass against us, our willingness to forgive should be proportionate to the ignorance and lack of willfulness and malice on the part of the transgressor. Whenever malice, willfulness and knowledge have been factors in a transgression, it is our duty to be proportionately slow to forgive and to require proportionately longer and stronger proofs of such repentance.

But this is as far as we may go. Although it is possible that these are sins unto death against God, we may not decide that any transgression against us is unforgivable. Against us there are to be no unpardonable sins. To forgive seventy times seven seems like merely another way of saying that there should be no limit placed upon our willingness to forgive an erring brother. In this respect also, we should copy God.

Surely God is always willing to forgive us when we seek His forgiveness. And we should remember, too, that God’s forgiveness of us is not the forgiveness of apparent imperfections, but the forgiveness rather of real sins. So must be our forgiveness of others. It is not a case of forgiveness based upon a discovery that the sin is merely apparent or due to a misunderstanding. It is real trespasses that we must forgive if we are to like our Father in heaven.

QUESTIONS:

Should Christians expect to be free from trials?

Are we able properly to decide that any sin committed against us is unforgivable?

What quality of the divine character is manifested in willingness to forgive one who has trespassed against him?

| Home Page | Table of Contents |