Beware the Adulteress The book of Proverbs contains the majority of the Bible’s mentions of the word “adulteress” (seven times in Proverbs compared to five times in the rest of the Bible). It refers to a woman who commits adultery, that is, she...
The Most Dangerous Prayer in the Bible Forgiveness Is a Serious Thing, and We’re Well Advised to Never Withhold It You’re probably familiar with the Lord’s prayer, sometimes informally called by its opening line as the Our Father. It’s a...
Martin Luther Supported the Sacrament of Penance But Luther believed the Pope had no power over purgatory Martin Luther’s second group of ninety-five theses addressed the pope’s authority over purgatory, or to be more correct, the pope’s lack of...
Is God’s Forgiveness Conditional? Jesus wants us to fully forgive others so that we may be fully forgiven In asking the simple question, “Is God’s forgiveness conditional?” the answer seems obvious: “No! God’s forgiveness is unconditional.” I was...
How Many Times Should We Forgive Someone? Jesus shared a story (parable) about forgiving others. Jesus’ illustration was prompted by Peter, who asked if forgiving someone seven times was enough; Peter thought seven times was generous. Jesus upped...
What Does Jesus Want Us to Forgive? In my post Be Careful What You Pray I mention a line in the Lord’s Prayer, “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” Different groups have different wording for this line. There are some I’ve run into...
Are We Really Supposed to Always Forgive? In the post on forgiveness, I cited the instructions of Jesus: when someone treats us wrongly we are to first confront (“rebuke”) them about the issue. If they apologize or acknowledge their error...
What Did Jesus Have to Say About Forgiveness? Once when teaching his disciples, Jesus addresses forgiveness. He says when someone treats us wrongly we are to first confront (“rebuke”) them about the issue. If they apologize or acknowledge their...
Be Careful What You Pray The Lord’s Prayer contains a curious phrase that gives me pause. Frankly, it makes me uncomfortable every time I say it. The passage in question is “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” We mean the first...
God Forgives Sins and We Forgive Others Jesus’ teaching on binding and loosing is a bit perplexing and worthy of careful contemplation. A parallel passage talks about forgiving sin and is even more disconcerting. Jesus says that if we forgive...
