39 - Bible Commentary | Karuna Sadan

“Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that ‘by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector. (Matthew 18:15-17)

This word is hardly put into practice. Nowadays people immediately resort to social media to wash their dirty linen in public.

Some time ago I read a psychologist who said that Christians, he felt, were very much like porcupines on a cold winter's night. The cold drives them to huddle together to keep warm, but as soon as they get close to another they start jabbing each other with their spines and that forces them to move apart; thus they are forever coming together and moving apart in a kind of slow dance.

I read the following poem that says it all:

To dwell above

with saints we love,

Oh, that will be glory.

But to dwell below

with saints, we know,

Well, that's another story.

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)

We all love to be forgiven -- we expect it, and want it. But we find it a struggle to forgive; we resist it, and refuse oftentimes to do it.

a little boy who was saying his prayers. As he went down the list of his family, asking God to bless them, he omitted his brother's name. His mother said to him, "Why didn't you pray for Cliff?" He said, "I'm not going to ask God to bless Cliff because he hit me." And his mother said, "Don't you remember Jesus said to forgive your enemies?" But the little boy said, "That's just the trouble. He's not my enemy; he's my brother!"

Perhaps many of us have the same difficulty, as did the Apostle Peter. He too was faced with this same problem, the problem of forgiving his brother.

I have often wondered, as I read this account, if Peter was actually thinking of his literal brother, Andrew. Peter and Andrew were brothers and had grown up together.

The rabbis taught that you only needed to forgive someone three times at the most. The fourth time you could do whatever you liked.

They even erroneously taught that God did this, based upon a text in Amos 1:3 "for three sins, yea, and for four" Amos 1:3, et al) God brings judgment upon such-and-such a city. Thus they taught that God himself never forgave more than three times.

So when Peter told the Lord that he was forgiving his brother seven times, the very thought was magnanimous. but it really suggests unlimited forgiveness.

And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. (Matthew 18:34)

The Apostle Paul warned Christians in Ephesus that they must, “not give a place to the devil.” satan is looking for opportunities to gain a foothold in our lives. One of the ways that we give place to the devil, and welcome demonic torment, is through unforgiveness.

What is torture?

Torture can be defined as extreme pain, the anguish of body or mind, agony or torment. These torturers described in the Bible are demonic spirits that have been given a right to torment a person because of the sin of unforgiveness.

Chapter 18