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Apr 25, 2025 18:00pm

Maintaining a Clear, Unburdened Heart

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“Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ forgive him.” (Luke 17:3)

We all sin, and we live in a world surrounded by those who sin. Everywhere sin raises its destructive head, it brings death. This is why Jesus Himself gives us simple, clear, and swift instructions regarding sin in our own lives. Also, in this single sentence, He forever tells us what we must do when we see sin in the lives of those around us.

IF YOUR BROTHER SINS

… rebuke him. Since all of our life is to be driven by love, this is not a harsh, judgmental rebuke. It is watching a friend going down in quicksand and gracefully but clearly throwing him a rope. It is a help to receive a kind correction from a concerned friend. We must be prayerful and move with words “fit for the need of the moment,” but we must throw the rope still.

Don’t let them drown, help them!

IF YOUR BROTHER REPENTS

… forgive him! What a gift forgiveness is to us and to others.

Forgiveness is a choice of our will made possible by the grace of God to release a debt by faith for the glory of God!

It is a choice. We may think we cannot forgive, but this is patently not true. The reason we know this is because Jesus says simply, “Forgive!” Just as you might forgive a financial debt because you love someone, you can forgive anything. And we can do it again and again, which Christ commands.

We can do it humbly because of the magnitude of our own sins and the height and depth of all we have been forgiven by God.

This forgiveness immediately releases us from the disease of unforgiveness and, ultimately, the horrible bondage of bitterness. We are always bettered by forgiving anyone—instantly, fully, graciously.

“But they’ll go off completely free! How could this be good?” But forgiveness is an act of faith, transferring that issue from our courtroom (where we think we must be judge, jury, and executioner) into the courtroom of heaven.

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,” says the Lord. “But if your enemy is hungry, feed him, and if he is thirsty, give him a drink; for in so doing you will heap burning coals on his head.” Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:19–21)

If you release the issue and the individual into God’s hands, you will not clutter His path to do His work in them. You are free, God is pleased that He is exalted to the proper place in the matter, and the individual will be in the best posture to be helped and corrected by God.

If they sin, rebuke them (in love); if they repent, forgive them.

A simple, life-changing formula to keep a clear heart and be mightily used by God … for you are never more like Jesus than when you forgive! Perhaps we need to begin right now.