Disobeys His commandments.
Sins against his brother without repenting.
Remains in sin.
Jesus gives the example in Matthew’s version of the parable of the lost sheep.
Jesus explains that God desires no one to be lost, but for us to forgive and be forgiven.
This is how sin is to be dealt with, repent and be forgiven.
If a brother sins against us we are to confront the person so they can know they have sinned, and if they repent we are to forgive them, as God has forgiven us.
This is all laid in Matthew 18.
“What do you think? If a man has a hundred sheep, and one of them goes astray, does he not leave the ninety-nine and go to the mountains to seek the one that is straying? And if he should find it, assuredly, I say to you, he rejoices more over that sheep than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray. Even so it is not the will of your Father who is in heaven that one of these little ones should perish. “
Moreover if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault between you and him alone. If he hears you, you have gained your brother. But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.’ And if he refuses to hear them, tell it to the church. But if he refuses even to hear the church, let him be to you like a heathen and a tax collector.
Then Peter asks -
Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.
The Jesus tells the parable of the unforgiving servant.
Then his master, after he had called him, said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?’ And
his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him.
“So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
Matthew 18:32-35
- “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
It’s plain to see that if we do not forgive, our sins which were at one time forgiven, will be reinstated back to us and we will have to pay the full penalty for them.
JPT