“Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” [22] “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!”
Matthew 18:21-22 NLT
Peter may have been a bit frustrated when he asked Jesus how many times he had to forgive someone. Imagine his surprise when Jesus answered 70 times 7! Peter knew exactly what Jesus meant. He knew what the numbers represented…. 70 means completeness or totality and 7 means perfection. Jesus is telling us that we’re supposed to write down a tally mark whenever we forgive someone and then quit when we get to that number. In fact, we’re not supposed to keep track at all. Jesus said this to show that there’s no point in keeping track because we are to keep forgiving regardless of how many times we’ve forgiven in the past.
Jesus also illustrates this teaching with a parable. In the parable, a king forgives his servant of a debt. The servant then walks out, finds someone who owes him money, and demands repayment. Though this man had just been forgiven, he refuses to forgive someone else.
Folks, Sometimes we do the same thing. Though God has forgiven believers for all that we’ve done wrong, we sometimes forget that we too need to forgive. Even if it’s over and over again.
The Scriptural Truth 