Matthew 18:21-35
New International Version 1984 (NIV1984)
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I
forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven
times.
23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to
settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten
thousand talents[b] was
brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and
his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with
me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The
servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants
who owed him a hundred denarii.[c] He
grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.
29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient
with me, and I will pay you back.’
30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into
prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened,
they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had
happened.
32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he
said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t
you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In
anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should
pay back all he owed.
35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you
forgive your brother from your heart.”
“I forgive
you,” those are very easy words to say but are they always heartfelt? This is a question that each one of us needs
to ponder as we will be judged according to our forgiveness of others. There is another place where Jesus specifies
that we need to forgive, Matthew 6: 12,
14-15. We find it when Jesus was
teaching His disciples how to pray. When
He said, 12 “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our debtors”. Following that prayer He made another special emphasis on this
specific portion of the verse when He said, 14 “For if
you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also
forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive men their sins, your
Father will not forgive your sins”. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%206:%2012%20-%2015&version=NIV1984)
Is forgiveness important? It is if you
want to be forgiven by the Father!
Sometimes
it is easier to forgive than other times.
Because we look at sin at different levels. In our eyes a lie dims in comparison to
murder. In
Isaiah 59: 2 – 3 we see murder and a lie are in the same category, one that
separates us from God. 2 But your
iniquities have separated you from your God; your
sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will
not hear. 3
For your hands
are stained with blood, your fingers with guilt. Your lips have spoken lies, and your tongue
mutters wicked things.
When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment was, in Matthew 22: 37 – 40, 37 Jesus replied: “‘Love
the Lord
your God with all your heart and with all your soul
and with all your mind.’38
This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor
as yourself.’
40 All the Law and the http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2018:%2021%20-%2035&version=NIV1984Prophets
hang on these two commandments.” (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2022:%20%2037%20%2040&version=NIV1984) If you stop and think about every
commandment, each of them applies to either our relationship with God or our
brother.
Some
hurts, for humans are deeper than others.
It is much easier for us to forgive a lie than it is a murder. It is much easier for us to forgive the debt
of our brother if it is $100.00 but if it is $1,000.00 we are a little less
likely to forgive it. God doesn’t look
at it that way. Any sin we commit is a
separation from God, as is stated in Isaiah 59.
Now
that we have established the seriousness of all sin, let’s look back at our
verses for us today. Our Father has
forgiven our huge debt in which we should be more than grateful for. Yet, if our brother speaks against us and we
hold that against them, not forgiving them is not acceptable to God. If we can’t forgive how can the Father
forgive us? We are not any more special
to our Father than our brother is. Forgiveness
is essential. We can say, “I forgive”
but it is our heart that the forgiveness needs to come from, not our
mouths. It is so easy to tell our
brother that they need to forgive but we need to first look at our own hearts
and make sure we have forgiven. Jesus
gave us an example of forgiving from the heart, one that we ourselves need to
take to heart when our brother has sinned against us. It can be found in Luke 23:34 34 Jesus said, “Father, forgive
them, for they do not know what they are doing.”
And they divided up his clothes by casting lots. (http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Luke%2023:34&version=NIV1984)
It is written how they beat Him,
spat upon Him, mocked Him, and stole from Him but He forgave them even while He
was in pain, hanging from a cross. We
are to use His example and forgive others. When we are in our deepest hurt over
the actions of others we need to forgive and forgive from our hearts, not lip
service. We need to each one examine our
hearts to see that we have forgiven or our brothers from our hearts.
As
you seek Him and find Him, remember that just as He has forgiven you, so must
you forgive your brother.
Seeking
Him with all my heart,
Sheila
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