<p>18:21&nbsp;<i>Then Peter came and said to him: Lord-&nbsp;</i>Peter asked: &ldquo;Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?&rdquo;. Jesus responds with a parable in which a man who calls his king &ldquo;Lord&rdquo; is himself forgiven, but refuses to forgive another man. Surely that parable was specifically for Peter, the one who delighted to know Jesus as Lord. He was warned through the parable that calling Him &lsquo;Lord&rsquo; wasn&rsquo;t enough. An appreciation of Him as Lord of his life would mean quite naturally that he had a spirit of frank forgiveness for his brother, not carefully measuring it out, but rather reflecting his Lord&rsquo;s forgiveness of him. If Jesus is really Lord, then everything which He does and all that He shows becomes an imperative for us to follow.</p>
<p><i>How often-&nbsp;</i>Jesus replies, 70 x 7. i.e. to an unlimited extent, even when the repentance is obviously insincere. It's as if He's saying that yes you can go through the procedure of sorting it out with your brother and rejecting him from your personal company. But, the higher level, is to simply forgive him. It's like adultery under the Law. There were several options for the husband. Do a trial of jealousy and make her infertile. Stone her. Divorce her. Or, just forgive her. We surely all ought to be aiming for the higher level. Those who quote Matthew 18 as a reason for withdrawal are in my view living on a lower spiritual level than those who forgive 70 x 7. But the gracious Lord doubtless shall accept them too in the last day.</p>
<p><i>Shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?</i>- The Lord's comment that &quot;If your brother shall trespass against you&quot; (:15- see notes there) is picked up here by Peter. The Lord's reply was that Peter should forgive his brother to an unlimited extent, each and every day. It seems to me that the Lord was saying that the 'one-two-out' attitude which He had just described was very much the lower level of response, the way of the Jewish synagogues; He wished His followers to take the higher level, of unconditional forgiveness. Indeed, the whole passage where He speaks about going to see your brother and then telling the church is wedged in between His teachings about grace and forgiveness. It's so out of place that one wonders whether He wasn't saying it very tongue in cheek, in allusion to the synagogue discipline methods. At the very least, He seems to intend the contrast between His surrounding words and those about 'one-two-out' to sink in, to the point that we realize, as He told Peter, that there is indeed a higher way.&nbsp;</p>
<p><i>Until seven times</i>- Lk. 17:4 adds &ldquo;in a day&rdquo;. Perhaps Peter had in mind how Jacob bowed seven times to Esau and was forgiven (Gen. 33:3), or perhaps he had wondered whether the sprinkling of blood seven times in the Mosaic rituals spoke of forgiveness of a maximum of seven sins in one day, as some Rabbis taught (Lev. 4:6,17; 8:11; 14:7,51; 16:14,19; Num. 19:4). Or perhaps Prov. 24:16 was another source for his thinking- &ldquo;a just man falls seven times and rises up again&rdquo;. The Lord&rsquo;s answer was that we need to forgive far more than seven times because we too sin far more than seven times / day- which is the function of the hopelessly indebted servant in the following parable. Peter&rsquo;s phrase &ldquo;<i>until&nbsp;</i>seven times&rdquo; is strangely lifted right out of Dan. 4:23, where Nebuchadnezzar was to be punished &ldquo;until seven times&rdquo; passed over him. Peter often alludes to Old Testament scripture in his recorded speech; he was very Bible-minded. He may have been suggesting &lsquo;Even if someone&rsquo;s as bad as Gentile Nebuchadnezzar, we should still forgive them, I suppose, but that surely is the limit&rsquo;. But the Lord&rsquo;s subsequent comment about 70 sevens is from the prophecy of Daniel 9 regarding the far longer &ldquo;times&rdquo; which were to pass over Israel for their sin. So His comeback on Peter&rsquo;s clever allusion was: &lsquo;No, Peter. Don&rsquo;t forgive people &ldquo;till seven times&rdquo;, as much as God did Gentile king Nebuchadnezzar- but as much as God forgave&nbsp;<i>Israel</i>, which was an infinite amount, 70 times, more than that!&rsquo;. Such level of dialogue with Peter would&rsquo;ve been perfectly possible and normal, for he really knew and loved the Old Testament and was quite the amateur Bible student- see &lsquo;Peter: Bible Student&rsquo; in my&nbsp;<i>Peter and Paul</i>&nbsp;(Sydney: Aletheia, 2008). See on 18:27&nbsp;<i>Forgave him the debt</i>.</p>