Monday after the Eighth Sunday after Trinity, 8/14/00

Luke 17: 1-5 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come. It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. So watch yourselves. "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times comes back to you and says, `I repent,' forgive him." The apostles said to the Lord, "Increase our faith!" --NIV

In the name of the One Who warns us against false doctrine, amen.

"Why are there so many churches?" is a question that many people ask. It is often followed by the question, "Don't we all believe in the same God?" The reason that there are so many churches is that people refuse to follow God's word. They twist it to say what they want it to say. Sometimes they try to make a list of rules that we have to follow. Other times they try to make it approve of everything. Both of these approaches are basically the same-they are the teachings of men rather than God.

The person who teaches something other than what God's word teaches, and leads other people to sin because of it, will be judged very severely. God loves His children and will not excuse false doctrine. The disciples understood this and were fearful of coming into judgment.

But notice what causes them to fear. At the very center of this conversation between Jesus and His disciples is forgiveness. It is easy for us to suggest that the sins of another person can't be forgiven, especially if we think the sins are very great, or if they have sinned against us. It is also easy for us to suggest that a person's sins are forgiven when they are not repentant of them. This happens when the person is close to us, or when society strongly urges acceptance of a particular sin. How do we view sex outside of marriage? Scripture says it is evil, but we begin to think it is trivial. Do we allow people to think it is OK with God?

Either wrong approach to forgiveness is at the heart of false doctrine. Obviously we need to say with the disciples, "Lord, increase our faith!" Our faith is increased when we ourselves experience real forgiveness. When we don't try to deny or explain away our sins, but trusting in Jesus' sacrifice for us confess them to God, then God forgives our sins and our faith is increased. That is the message we hold onto. That is the message we share with others. Amen.

Prayer: Heavenly Father, it is hard for us to forgive the way You forgive. Sometimes we don't want to forgive because we feel personally offended by someone's sin. Other times we give false forgiveness when we say that there was nothing wrong with someone's sin. Keep us from these errors. Help us to confess our own sins and trust the forgiveness You give in Jesus, so that we too can forgive others who repent of their sins, amen.

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