Luke 17:3

Take heed to yourselves: if thy brother sin, rebuke him; and if he repent forgive him. And if he sin against thee seven times in a day, and seven times turn to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.

Jesus often taught on the subject of forgiveness. Just about the longest parable in the New Testament regards this very thing (Matthew 18:20-35); and there is no need to make Luke's account here a "variable" of other teachings of Jesus in similar words and different circumstances. In fact, there is a little different thing in view here, namely, a warning against withholding forgiveness (when it has been asked for). Nor can we agree with Wesley that "forgiveness is due only to real penitents."[5] Summers was nearer the true meaning of Jesus when he wrote:

It is foreign to the intent of Jesus to ask, "But what if he does not repent?" ... The follower of Jesus is not justified in holding a spirit of unforgiveness just because no apology is offered. That would put the responsibility for the Christian's attitude upon the offender; and that Jesus would never do.[6]

This subject is more extensively developed in this writer's my Commentary on Matthew, Matthew 6:14-15. As a matter of fact, if one is going to forgive only those sinners against himself who repent and request it, he will not forgive anyone ten times in a lifetime! Besides that, what about those cases in which men sin against others WITHOUT EVER BEING AWARE that they have done so? And in religious matters, many sins are committed unintentionally (see John 16:2).

[5] John Wesley, Notes on the New Testament (Naperville, Illinois: Alec. R. Allenson, Inc., 1950), en loco.

[6] Ray Summers, Commentary on Luke (Waco, Texas: Word Books, Publisher, 1974), p. 197.