Love always says, “Sorry.”

“Then Peter came and said to Him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.”  —Matthew 18:21-22 (NASB)

I remember the first time I nearly cried (OK, maybe a sniffle or low sob slipped out) at a chick-flick movie. It was Love Story, not the modern music video by Taylor Swift, but the 1970s classic movie with Ryan O’Neal and Allie McGraw. I was visiting my brother in Chicago who took me with his girlfriend to the movies. Being 16 years old, I had no idea that movies have plots that draw you in, build emotionally, and then drop you like a rock.

For all of you under 40, the plot of Love Story went something like this. A young but rich prep-school hockey jock meets and falls in love with a scholarly but poor ivy-league young lady. The spoiled preppie falls out with his millionaire father. The girlfriend, now the hockey jock’s wife, must quit school to put him through college and law school. Their struggle through tough times portrays some of the tenderest moments of the film. He finally graduates, passes the bar exam, and gets a great job with a prestigious law firm in the big city.

Just as they move into a new high rise apartment and prepare to settle down, have kids, and live happily ever after, she is diagnosed with cancer and dies. The rich father gets the news, arrives at the hospital just in time to greet his son exiting the hospital in grief. The father says, “I’m sorry.” The hurting son replies with the last line of the movie. “Love, means never having to say you’re sorry.” With that comment, he walks away from his father. Somewhere in here I think I struggled to hold in a 16-year-old’s sob. What pain. What a loss. What a crock of baloney.

In real life, love means you always say you’re sorry. If we were perfect, if we were God, never having to apologize might be true. But we are fallen human beings living in a fallen world. We mess up. We make mistakes, and we must continually admit when we are wrong and say, “I’m sorry.” I imagine, right now, there are men all over America, making apologies for forgetting Valentine’s Day. They forgot to even get a card, a flower, or small box of chocolates. I don’t believe in increasing the Gross National Product by overspending for holidays, but just a small thought and inexpensive token of love goes a long way in a relationship.

Peter asked the Lord how many times one should forgive someone, “Seven times?” Peter may have been trying to impress the Lord because some believe the local custom was to forgive three times. Jesus shocked Peter and the rest of the disciples by saying to forgive seventy times seven. James 5:16 urges us, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.” 1 John 1:9 teaches us, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” If confession heals our bodies, (Church body and physical bodies) and if in confession we find forgiveness and cleansing, then most certainly we should say we’re sorry. God I’m sorry for the things I’ve done, the rebellion I have lived. Honey, friend, or neighbor, “I’m sorry for forgetting. I’m sorry for hurting you.”

True Christian love and life means admitting when you are wrong and asking for forgiveness. May God give each of us the courage and conviction to say, “I was wrong; I am sorry.” God bless you with health, righteousness, and joy as you say, “Sorry.”