Principles of living a set apart, godly life [7] – Repentance [5 of 12]

 In the gospels, when it comes to ‘repentance’, the focus on is on Jews as God’s chosen ethnic group, and their thinking and perceiving after they have heard the good news proclaimed. ‘Repentance’ is, by enlarge, centred on unfaithful, wayward Jews re-assessing their behaviour and lifestyle in relation to God. Ultimately it is a call for Jews to turn away from worldly attitudes and behaviours and to re-appraise the values and principles that they are living by, because their promised Messiah and the kingdom is coming near.    

In chapter 17 of Luke’s gospel, the focus shifts to Jews who have been wronged or treated unfairly by a fellow Jew. How was a Jew to react if a fellow member of God’s chosen ethnic group was missing the mark or behaving unjustly toward him? Was the Jew who was being treated unfairly to start lecturing the offender about Covenant Law? Was he to regard the offender with a superior sense of contempt from a position of self-righteousness? Was he to hold a grudge even if the offender apologised and sought to make restitution? 

Jesus said, ‘Pay attention to yourselves. If your brother misses the mark and errs, admonish him, and if he thinks and perceives afterwards, send him forth and forgive him. If he misses the mark toward you seven times in a day and seven times turns toward you saying, ‘I am thinking and perceiving afterwards’, you will send him forth and forgive him’, (Luke 17 v 3, 4). Yes, by all means, point out their error if you are being wronged. But if the brother who is in error considers his speech and behaviour afterwards and accepts his error, then the onus is on you to send the error away. You are to forget about the error and forgive him. How many times should you forgive such a person? Seven times a day if necessary.    

This is surely what we hope for from God as Christians. We fall into error and come to God in prayer, acknowledge our error and seek to turn away from it, requesting that God forgive us. But we find that there are some errors that are persistent. We fall into such an error again and once again we sincerely repeat our request for forgiveness. Then we fall into the same error yet again. In such cases we are grateful for God’s forbearance, patience and mercy in the light of our weakness. Jesus expects both Jews and Christians to imitate this love with regard to each other – to show practical, beneficial love to one another. This is his primary instruction.