Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little. For she loved much - Or, Therefore she loved much. It appears to have been a consciousness of God's forgiving love that brought her at this time to the Pharisee's house. In the common translation her forgiveness is represented to be the consequence of her loving much, which is causing the tree to produce the root, and not the root the tree. I have considered ὁτι here as having the sense of διοτι, therefore; because, to make this sentence suit with the foregoing parable, Luke 7:42, Luke 7:43, and with what immediately follows here, but he to whom little is forgiven loveth little, we must suppose her love was the effect of her being pardoned, not the cause of it. Ὁτι seems to have the sense of therefore in Matthew 13:13; John 8:44; 1 Corinthians 10:17; and in the Septuagint, in Deuteronomy 33:52; Isaiah 49:19; Hosea 9:15; and Ecclesiastes 5:6. Both these particles are often interchanged in the New Testament.
Loved much - loveth little - That is, A man's love to God will be in proportion to the obligations he feels himself under to the bounty of his Maker.