⭐WEB · Matthew 18:21
What does Matthew 18:21 mean?
"Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”"
— Matthew 18:21 (World English Bible)
Surrounding context
Most certainly I tell you, whatever things you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever things you release on earth will have been released in heaven.
Again, assuredly I tell you, that if two of you will agree on earth concerning anything that they will ask, it will be done for them by my Father who is in heaven.
For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the middle of them.”
Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”
Jesus said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.
Therefore the Kingdom of Heaven is like a certain king, who wanted to reconcile accounts with his servants.
When he had begun to reconcile, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents.
Explanation
In this verse, Peter approaches Jesus with a practical question about the limits of forgiveness. He asks how many times he should forgive someone who sins against him, offering seven as what he likely believed was a generous number. In plain language, Peter is asking: "At what point can I stop forgiving someone and consider the matter closed?" He is looking for a boundary, a clear rule he can apply to relationships that wrong him repeatedly.
To understand the context, it helps to know that Jewish rabbinic teaching of the time often suggested that forgiving someone three times was sufficient — after the third offense, one was not obligated to forgive again. Peter, one of Jesus's closest disciples, doubles that number and adds one more, suggesting seven times, which would have sounded remarkably generous by the standards of his day. This question comes right after Jesus has been teaching about church discipline and reconciliation between believers (Matthew 18:15-20), so forgiveness within the community of faith is very much on Peter's mind. He wants to know if he's grasped the spirit of Jesus's teaching, perhaps expecting praise for his generosity.
Theologically, this verse sets up one of Jesus's most important teachings on forgiveness, found in his response in the following verses (Matthew 18:22), where he tells Peter to forgive not seven times, but "seventy times seven." The point is not a literal ceiling of 490 offenses, but rather that forgiveness should have no calculated limit at all. Peter's question reveals a common human tendency to want fairness measured out in f
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