Article August 14, 1995 Issue

Why keep on forgiving?

Louis Edmund Benjamin

When the disciple Peter asked Jesus how many times he should forgive his brother who had sinned against him, Jesus replied, "Until seventy times seven" (Matt. 18:22). For me the value of this advice lies in its efficacy in bringing about a healing of sin.

When a contractor was working on a project at my home, I felt that he was not abiding by the spirit of the agreement. I became annoyed at his attitude and subsequently stopped payment on a check already given him. The situation reached the stage where there was a wish on my part that he actually would do something else incorrectly so that more money could be withheld from him.

Needless to say, I was extremely unhappy, and in a most distraught state I attended the Wednesday evening testimony meeting at our church in the hope of gaining my peace. I felt this was the right place for me to be in spite of being tempted to skip the meeting. I wasn't able to concentrate much on what was read from the Bible or Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy, or on the testimonies of healing, but at the end of the meeting a thought came to me. It was this: "Thy sins be forgiven thee." These are words that Christ Jesus occasionally used when healing people of sin and disease.

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