Luke 17:3

3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.

Luke 17:3 Meaning and Commentary

Luke 17:3

Take heed to yourselves.
&c.] Or to one another, that ye neither give, nor take offence. Take heed to your spirits, to your doctrines, walk, and conversation, that you give no offence to any, that you are not stumbled by what you shall see in, and meet with from others:

if thy brother trespass against thee; (See Gill on Matthew 18:15)

rebuke him;
privately, and proceed according to the rules there directed to; lay his sin before him; endeavour not only to convince him of the fact, but of the evil of it; how contrary to the will of God; how unbecoming the Gospel of Christ, and the profession he makes; how hurtful to himself, as well as injurious to his brother; and how such evils give the enemy occasion to reproach the saints, to speak evil of the ways of God, and blaspheme the name and doctrines of Christ, and harden sinners in their sins, as well as stumble weak Christians, and sadden the hearts of the righteous.

And if he repent;
if he is made sensible of his evil, and is truly sorry for it, and ingenuously acknowledges it:

forgive him;
the injury committed against a man's self; and pray to God for him, for an application of his pardoning grace and mercy to him; and comfort him with the hope of forgiveness with God, by the gracious promises and declarations of pardon made to such persons; drop all resentment and anger, and behave towards him with all sweetness of temper, and affability, and respect: and this is to be done immediately, as soon as a man repents: and so say the Jews F16;

``says R. Chanina bar Papa, whoever commits a thing, and repents of it, they forgive him directly; as it is said, ( Malachi 3:5 ) "and fear not me": lo, they that fear me, forgive immediately:''

such were reckoned good men, men fearing God.


FOOTNOTES:

F16 T. Bab. Chagiga, fol. 5. 1.

Luke 17:3 In-Context

1 Jesus said to his disciples, "Occasions for stumbling are bound to come, but woe to anyone by whom they come!
2 It would be better for you if a millstone were hung around your neck and you were thrown into the sea than for you to cause one of these little ones to stumble.
3 Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, you must rebuke the offender, and if there is repentance, you must forgive.
4 And if the same person sins against you seven times a day, and turns back to you seven times and says, "I repent,' you must forgive."
5 The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!"

Footnotes 1

New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright 1989, Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.