Luke 17:3,4 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Take heed to yourselves That you may neither offend others, nor be offended by others, but that you may keep all your passions under proper regulation, and may be preserved from those resentments of injuries, real or supposed, which, if yielded to, might occasion much sin to yourselves or others. If thy brother trespass against thee, &c. But while our Lord cautioned them against all angry passions, and that quarrelsome temper which they naturally produce, he thus prescribed a seasonable and prudent reprehension of any fault that might be committed, accompanied with forgiveness on the part of the person injured, as the best means of disarming the temptations that might arise from such a disposition. See on Matthew 18:21. And if he repent, forgive him Immediately, without insisting on any rigorous satisfaction. And if he trespass against thee seven times a day That is, very frequently; and seven times a day turn again, saying, I repent That is, if he give sufficient proof that he does really repent, after having sinned ever so often; thou shalt forgive him Shalt receive him just as if he had never sinned against thee. But this forgiveness is due only to real penitents. See on Matthew 18:21-22. In a lower sense, we are to forgive all, penitent or impenitent, so as to bear them the sincerest goodwill, and to do them all the good we can; and that not seven times only, but seventy times seven.