Luke 17:1-4
And he said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, I repent, you must forgive him.
In this sobering passage Jesus says that "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!" (verse 1). To promote immorality, or to encourage or force immorality, is a terrible thing that saddens God. We need to repent of any ways that we have encouraged sin, or introduced others to it. But the good news is that there is hope if we repent: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him" (verse 3). We need to be willing to both rebuke and forgive. The purpose of rebuking is not to feel self-righteous, but to get the other person to repent of their sin. If they do repent, we must be willing to forgive, no matter how awful their sin may seem to us, even if it is a repeated sin, e.g. even "if he sins against you seven times in the day" (verse 4).
God, give me discernment of when to rebuke and when to forgive.
And he said to his disciples, Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come! 2 It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin. 3 Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, 4 and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, I repent, you must forgive him.
In this sobering passage Jesus says that "Temptations to sin are sure to come, but woe to the one through whom they come!" (verse 1). To promote immorality, or to encourage or force immorality, is a terrible thing that saddens God. We need to repent of any ways that we have encouraged sin, or introduced others to it. But the good news is that there is hope if we repent: "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him" (verse 3). We need to be willing to both rebuke and forgive. The purpose of rebuking is not to feel self-righteous, but to get the other person to repent of their sin. If they do repent, we must be willing to forgive, no matter how awful their sin may seem to us, even if it is a repeated sin, e.g. even "if he sins against you seven times in the day" (verse 4).
God, give me discernment of when to rebuke and when to forgive.