Verse of the Day for September 14

Peter's question follows straight after a promise. where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them. Jesus has just described his people gathered. Peter immediately thinks of what happens when people gather: they hurt each other.

Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Seven was a generous number. Peter was not being stingy. He was trying to set a reasonable limit, a point at which he could finally decide he had done enough.

Jesus does not give him a bigger limit. Until seventy times seven is not really a number to reach. Nobody is keeping a tally up to four hundred and ninety. It is a way of saying the counting itself is the problem.

Every decision about forgiveness can quietly turn into a calculation. How many times has he done this? Is this the last straw? Jesus answers by taking the calculator out of Peter's hand.

When you stand at that point again, in the corridor after the meeting or outside your sister's door, you will be tempted to count. Ask instead what Jesus was really asking Peter. Not how many, but whether you will keep being the kind of person who forgives.

The gathered church is also where forgiveness gets tested.

Ask who you are becoming, not how many times it has happened.