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NASB | John 20:23 "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | John 20:23 "If you forgive the sins of anyone they are forgiven [because of their faith]; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained [and remain unforgiven because of their unbelief]." |
Bible Question:
Can anyone explain this verse? How should we interpret it together with Matthew 18:18 and 22? The teacher in our Church explained the second part (if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained) that if we do not forgive the sins of others, their sins retained in your heart. That is you are always in a situation that you memorize their sins. In doing so, you are infact bothered by their sins. That is why we should forgive. Thanks for any help. Azure |
Bible Answer: Greetings azurelaw, In this verse it does not refer to a single person but instead it refers to the church as a whole. In Matt 16:19 Jesus gives Peter (and by extension all other Chrisitians) the authority to declare what has been loosed in Heaven. This echos ghe promise of John 20:23 where Christ gave the disciples authority to forgive or retain the sins of the people. This must be understood in all context of Matt 18:15-17 where Christ laid out specific instructions for dealing with the sin in the church. When putting all these verses together it tells us that any duly constituted body of believers, acting on the authority of Gods word, has the authority to declare if someone is forgiven or unforgiven. For example if the church says an unrepented person is bound in sin the church is saying what God's word says about that person. No where in the bible does it support that we ever memorize someone elses sins or that we retain the sins of someone by not forgiving them. Hope that this helps. prayon |