What happens after forgiveness? It turns out it isn’t enough just to say you’re sorry. God’s law says that restitution is also important. If you’ve hurt someone, you need to make it right. In fact, in both of these passages, we are commanded to give back even more than we have taken.

Why is this necessary? Well, the ultimate goal of all discipline is to restore broken relationships, right? So, how could your relationship with someone else be restored if you are still profiting from your bad behavior? And what better way to prove your love for someone than to give them, not only what they lost, but even more?

So, how can we put this idea into practice? If we’ve taken someone else’s things, the answer is obvious. But what if did something to hurt someone’s feelings? What if our words hurt someone’s reputation? The bottom line is that we have to do whatever it takes to restore our relationship, to make right whatever we’ve done wrong.

But what if the shoe’s on the other foot? What if we are the ones who were harmed? Exodus 22:2-3 helps us understand this with the example of a thief breaking in. There is no consequence if he is killed at night, but if the break-in happens during the day and he is killed, the homeowner is guilty of murder.

Why is that? In the days before firearms, it was hard to kill someone accidentally. So, if a thief was killed in the daylight, the assumption was that the homeowner knew what he was doing and thus used deadly force on purpose.

So, what does that mean for us? Simply this: while it is right to defend ourselves from someone else’s attack on our person or our property, it is wrong to hurt him intentionally in return. Yes, he is responsible to make things right, but we should not make unreasonable demands, or try to take advantage of the situation. If fair play is important for the thief, it is just as important for his victim.

And that’s because the most important thing is not our things, or even our feelings or our reputations. The most important thing is our relationship with those whom we have hurt or those who have hurt us. In short, love must come first, no matter what happens.

Exodus 22:1-3 (NAS)

“If a man steals an ox or a sheep, and slaughters it or sells it, he shall pay five oxen for the ox and four sheep for the sheep.
2 “If the thief is caught while breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, there will be no bloodguiltiness on his account.
3 “But if the sun has risen on him, there will be bloodguiltiness on his account. He shall surely make restitution; if he owns nothing, then he shall be sold for his theft.

Numbers 5:5-7 (NAS)

5 Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying,
6 “Speak to the sons of Israel, ‘When a man or woman commits any of the sins of mankind, acting unfaithfully against the LORD, and that person is guilty,
7 then he shall confess his sins which he has committed, and he shall make restitution in full for his wrong, and add to it one-fifth of it, and give it to him whom he has wronged.