I don't think many of us really understand forgiveness. Just as Jesus loves all His people and is willing to forgive their sins, we must be willing to forgive others who have done wrong to us. Anger can consume us with hatred and block out the love of God. Whether between parent and child, spouses, friends, or nations, expressions of anger divide us and drive us toward open hostility. More often than not, our angry feelings are based on a misinterpretation of what someone said or did. A grudge clouds our judgment and may lead us to an act of revenge that can never be undone. The phrase seventy times seven is synonymous with God's eternal forgiveness. "Then Peter came to Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven" (Matthew 18:21-22).
Jesus isn't telling us to forgive our brothers more than seven times, or more than seventy times, or up to 490 times. He's telling us we should always forgive our brothers when they have sinned against us. God in heaven has forgiven all of humanity's sins; how wrong it would be for us to deny our brothers and sisters a similar forgiveness for much lesser matters. The book of Matthew goes on to recount one of Jesus' parables about how the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. After the master took pity on a servant and canceled his debt and let him go, the servant failed to do likewise. "You wicked servant," the master said, "I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?" The Heavenly Father will turn us over to the jailers to be tortured (eternal hell) unless we forgive our brother from our heart.
“Let me say this, then, speaking for the Lord: Live no longer as the unsaved do, for they are blinded and confused. Their closed hearts are full of darkness: they are far away from the life of God because they have shut their minds against him, and they cannot understand his ways. They don’t care anymore about right and wrong and have given themselves over to impure ways. They stop at nothing, being driven by their evil minds and reckless lusts. But that isn’t the way Christ taught you. If you have really heard his voice and learned from him the truths concerning himself, then throw off your old evil nature; the old you that was a partner in your evil ways, rotten through and through full of lust and shame".
"Now your attitudes and thoughts must all be constantly changing for the better. Yes, you must be a new and different person, holy and good. Clothe yourself with this new nature. Stop lying to each other; tell the truth, for we are hurting ourselves. If you are angry, don’t sin by nursing your grudge. Don’t let the sun go down with you still angry, get over it quickly; for when you are angry you give a mighty foothold to the devil. If anyone is stealing, he must stop it and begin using those hands of his for honest work so he can give to others in need. Don’t use bad language. Say only what is good and helpful to those you are talking to, and what will give them a blessing. Don’t cause the Holy Spirit sorrow by the way you live. Remember, he is the one who marks you to be present on that day when salvation from sin will be complete".
The need to forgive is not some ideal that we cannot hope to attain. Forgiveness is necessary to free us from the dark cloud of anger and resentment that can literally destroy our own lives. We cannot afford to wait for the other person to repent and apologize. Unless we let go of our anger and the desire to punish or get even, the Love of God cannot enter our lives. We are not meant to live hard-hearted or self-centered lives. We are called to put our faith into practice and truly love our neighbors, especially those less fortunate. Before we were Christians, it was natural for us to hold grudges and be unforgiving, because that was our very nature. As believers we have been set free from our unforgiving past and it no longer has to lead us. Jesus calls us to remember that we are all God's children, so stop being mean, bad-tempered and angry, quarreling with harsh words, and the dislike of others. Instead, "be kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God has forgiven you because you belong to Christ” (Ephesians 4:17-32).
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