Josiah Concept Ministries

Shortly before Christmas, Jody mentioned that I ought to forgive someone who had wronged me in the past. I said that I thought that would be a good idea, except that I had no way to contact him since all contact information had been purged long ago. She suggested that I write him a letter, and we were able to locate his parents’ address with the old address we had and some ingenuity with the Internet White Pages.

I mulled the idea over in my head, considering what I would say. When it has been so long since you’ve talked to someone, you feel that you’re in the wrong for contacting them again. No matter how much he had hurt me, the Holy Spirit still convicted me and made me feel as if I was in the wrong for not contacting this friend anymore.

Soon after, I found a question in my inbox from a seeker wondering if 2 Corinthians 5:18 was the verse used by Catholics to justify the sacrament of reconciliation. The answer is no, that Matthew 16:19 is used for the justification of that sacrament. The Catholic Church says that since that command was given to the apostles only (and specifically to Peter), that this means only a sacramental priesthood has the power to forgive sins, and those only when confessed.

I wanted to spend a little extra time on this point, since it is important to the very nature of forgiveness. It is certainly true that this command was given only to the apostles. However, Jesus gave the same command later in the gospel of Matthew, this time to a crowd (Mat 18:18). At least, a crowd can be inferred because earlier in the speech He called a small child forward from among those that gathered (Mat 18:2). This is where Jesus told Peter to forgive his brother not seven times, but seventy times seven times (Mat 18:22). That is an idiomatic expression in Hebrew that means an infinite number of times. Think about that. No matter how many times someone wrongs us, we’re called by God to forgive them.

Jesus went on to teach the following parable, which I believe is the true meaning of “binding” and “loosing”:

Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.” And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, “Pay what you owe.” So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, “Have patience with me, and I will pay you.” He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. [Mat 18:23-35]

Basically, a servant who owed thousands of dollars to the master pleads for more time, and the master just forgives the entire debt. This same servant is owed a couple of bucks by another servant and throws the second one in jail. So the master refuses to fogive the first servant! The master is, of course, God. The two servants are Christians. Therefore, unless we forgive our fellows the wrongs they commit against us, God won’t forgive us the wrongs we have committed against Him! Why should He? After all, in the end, all wrongs ultimately wrong God, and if He is faithful to forgive (1 Jn 1:9), why shouldn’t we, now filled with His Holy Spirit (Rom 7:6, 2 Cor 5:7) do the same?

That parable perfectly echoes the binding/loosing statements of Jesus in verse 18 and 16:19. Therefore, I don’t believe that the Catholic interpretation of a sacrament of penance to be correct. The context shows that Jesus is specifically referring to personal wrongs committed against each other. He tells us that God will withold forgiveness from us if we withold it from our fellow men.

Now I don’t think that the Catholic concept of confession itself is a bad idea. I think that we should confess our sins to each other to keep ourselves accountable. Secrecy is only one of the methods by which the enemy can attack us. If we hide our sins from the world, the devil gets a toehold on our spirit and can use this secret to twist our thoughts and keep us sinning, and thus, move us further and further away from the saving grace of Jesus. But by confessing our sins, we remove the secrecy from our lives and close off that avenue of attack. Habitually confessing our sins to an accountability partner or group lessens the temptation to sin. Why do you want to keep telling this group, over and over, that you’ve done the same stupid things each week? Before long, they’re going to wonder if you’ve learned anything. Instead, keep away from sin altogether. The Lord will bless you, and you won’t be shamed by the sin itself (Ps 119:80, cf. Ps 15, 119:1).

Since I don’t believe in coincidences, when someone I hadn’t seen in years came into Burger King and asked if I knew how to get in touch with the person on my mind, I took these all as signs from God. This geared up my resolve, and I wrote the letter soon after.

I was, of course, overjoyed to know that my friend was happy to receive the letter and thrilled that we’re back in touch.

This rare personal story illustrates the difficulty of the path we choose as Christians. It is easy to stay mad at someone. It is even easy to forgive them. It is difficult to write to someone after two years, tell them you forgive them, ask them to forgive you for overreacting about it, and ask them back in your life. But this is precisely the type of thing that Jesus calls us to do.