Dealing with Sin

Christ refers to His disciples as “little ones,” a term of affection that signifies His special attention and care for us. This designation appears in the context of our Lord’s warning to those who would tempt believers to sin or otherwise be agents by which temptation afflicts us (Luke 17:1–2). What do we do, however, when a disciple does sin against us? We find the answer in today’ s passage.

After warning us to be on guard against sin, Jesus says that we should rebuke a brother when he sins and forgive him if he repents (v. 3). In other words, the Christian community is to be the home of both righteousness and mercy. We are not to take sin lightly, so we must address it when it happens in the church. Yet we must also be quick to forgive when people do confess their sin and repent. The church must not be a place where past sins and failures are continually relitigated and where endless amends for sin are required. Many people perpetually hold grievances, never truly forgiving. This is not the way of Christ. Christianity, while calling for honesty about our sin and repentance, offers true freedom through gracious forgiveness. Thus, we are to be a continually forgiving people (v. 4).

In Luke 17:3–4, Jesus focuses on sins committed privately, transgressions of individuals that are not publicly known. Public sin, of course, must be addressed publicly (e.g., see the public rebuke in 1 Cor. 5). John Calvin comments that Christ “does not simply, and without exception, order us to advise or reprove privately, and in the absence of witnesses, all who have offended, but bids us attempt this method, when we have been offended in private.”

Finally, forgiveness does not necessarily mean that there are no consequences for sin. Jesus directs us to be as wise as serpents (Matt. 10:16), so those who have committed significant breaches of trust do not merit the immediate restoration of that trust even when they repent and are forgiven. Calvin writes, “When any man, through his light and unsteady behavior, has exposed himself to suspicion, we may grant pardon when he asks it, and yet may do so in such a manner as to watch over his conduct for the future, that our forbearance and meekness, which proceed from the Spirit of Christ, may not become the subject of his ridicule.”