Obey, Don't Feel

If another believer sins, rebuke him; then if he repents, forgive him. Lk. 17:3

Forgiveness is first granted, then felt. Christians frequently raise the objection that if you act forgiving without really feeling it, you are guilty of hypocrisy. But we find in Luke 17 that feelings are not a necessary ingredient of obedience. Jesus began with a warning in verse 3: “Be careful of yourselves.” The warning was necessary; there are many ways to err about forgiveness.

The warning is pertinent to many Christians who are caught up in the easy rationalizations by which they try to excuse themselves from the obligation to forgive their brothers. Jesus continued by stating that we are to forgive our brother if he asks for it, even seven times in a day! The obligations of Galatians 6:1 and Matthew 18:15 are repeated here. Notice that Jesus stressed the results of ensuing repentance, not its cause. He plainly stated that if as the result of the rebuke, the offending Christian says that he is repentant, the offended brother must forgive him.

We may ask, shouldn’t we wait for the fruit of repentance, in order to determine whether or not his repentance is real? But Jesus knew all about such objections when he told us to forgive even seven times a day! There is no way for us to verify the fruit of the other’s repentance in that space of time. In fact, all the evidence would seem to point in the opposite direction.

Yet, Jesus demanded that we forgive upon the brother’s verbal testimony alone. “…And seven times in a day should return to you saying, ‘I repent.’”

The disciples replied: “Lord, give us more faith!” (v.5). “This is too hard for us,” they complained. At first, their request for greater faith sounds quite reasonable – and pious.

But the Lord did not answer with a sympathetic response. He said that if they even had as much faith as the grain of a mustard seed, they would be able to do miraculous things. He then gave them a practical example. A servant was working out in the field all day. He came back at the end of the day, tired and hungry, only to be told to clean up, cook some food and serve his master. He did so, in spite of his natural hunger, and was not thanked. Why? He did not deserve thanks for merely doing his duty.

It is now clear that forgiveness is a “duty.” It is commanded. It is no more hypocritical to obey the Lord in granting forgiveness against one’s feelings than for the slave to prepare and serve the meal against his feelings. Nor, is it meritorious to fulfill this duty: “So also when you have done all things commanded you, say, ‘we are unprofitable servants, for we have done that which it was our duty to do.’” (vs. 10)