Luke 7:47 — Community Reflections

LUKE 7:47 — KING JAMES VERSION 0

“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.”

Therefore, I tell you, her many sins have been forgiven — as you can see, she has loved much. But whoever has been forgiven little loves little — the conclusion: her many sins have been forgiven — as you can see from the love she is showing (the logic is: the love is the evidence of the forgiveness, not the cause). Whoever has been forgiven little loves little: the parable applied to Simon — not the accusation that Simon is not forgiven but the observation that his small love indicates he does not understand the magnitude of what he has received.

Church Fathers on Luke 7:47

Having said just before, And the people that heard him justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John the same Evangelist builds up in deed what he had proposed in word, namely, wisdom justified by the righteous and the penitent, saying, And one of the Pharisees desired him, &c.
Bede · 8th century

This account is full of precious instruction. For there are very many who justify themselves, being puffed up with the dreamings of an idle fancy, who before the time of Judgment comes, separate themselves as lambs from the herds, not willing even to join in eating with the many, and hardly with those who go not to extremes, but keep the middle path in life. St. Luke, the physician of souls rather than of bodies, represents therefore our Lord and Savior most mercifully…
Gregory of Nyssa · 4th century

A woman of corrupt life, but testifying her faithful affection, comes to Christ, as having power to release her from every fault, and to grant her pardon for the crimes she had committed. For it follows, And behold a woman in the city which was a sinner brought an alabaster box of ointment.
Cyril of Alexandria · 5th century

Read all 35 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain

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