Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him.
And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
God’s plan for dealing with offenses and trespasses really is simple. But notice that Jesus places the onus on the offended, not the offender. As a Christian my focus should be on how I handle being offended and not how the offender is to be handled.
When someone trespasses against us
Rebuke him.
There will be trespasses. We simply are not perfect. We will be trespassed against. We will trespass against.
If he repents
Forgive him.
Most of the time. At least a lot of the time, they will repent. They will turn from their trespass. They will stop doing it. When they stop, forgive them. It’s over. It’s done.
If he repeats the trespass, and you repeat the rebuke and he repeats the repentance
Forgive him again and again
And he will trespass against you more than once. He, like you, is human. That he repeats the trespass does not mean it was false repentance. It means he failed to continue in it. If and when he repents, forgive over and over and over. It is the only way any of us can actually survive in a multi-people community.
If he does not repent, then the Bible teaches in other places how to deal with that
- Remove him from the Fellowswhip of the body
- Refrain as a member of the body from his company
- Pray that, at some point he will repent
Trust God’s plan. It will work if we will follow it.
To my readers:
Thank you! It is a great joy to me to know you read the thoughts and lessons God has given me in His word. I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave comments.
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