grace to the sick.

Taken directly from:
http://blog.marshill.com/2011/04/05/how-to-fight-to-the-glory-of-god-sermon-notes-luke-69/

How many times to forgive?

Cyril of Alexandria, an early church father, had an interesting statement on this principle. He said, “We need to deal with sinners the way that a doctor deals with those who are sick.”

Can you imagine going into your doctor saying, “I’m sick,” he’s like, “This is the sixth time. I’m done with you. I only treat people who are sick five times. After that, you’re on your own.” All right, what does a doctor do? A doctor says, “So long as you are sick, I will treat you and serve you and help you toward healing and wellness.” That’s what a doctor does. 

When we’re dealing with people who have a condition called sin, we need to have the attitude of a doctor. “Any time you’re sick, as long as you’re sick, I’m going to rebuke you in love because that’s the treatment plan that the Lord prescribes.”

And you know what? We want this when we sin. We want people to lovingly pursue us, at least you should, and rebuke us and not give up on us, but patiently endure with us. And so we need not be hypocrites, we need to extend to others the same grace that we would hope be given to us.