What does John 20:23 really mean?
So you are reading your Bible, and you come across a passage a verse that you are having a hard time understanding. It seems like a straightforward reading of it would contradict what the Bible teaches elsewhere, or at the very least it seems like the passage teaches something unusual. What should you do? As one example, here is Jesus speaking to his disciples before his ascension: “If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.” (John 20:23). Is Jesus saying that individual believers can forgive sins of “anyone,” even if they are not Christians? Do we really have that power? Do we have the power to withhold forgiveness, even of Christians? This is a complicated passage. Here I want to give three steps to help understanding “tricky” passages like this. Examine the Context When you encounter a difficult passage, read around it, and see what is happening in the context. Does the context give clues about what