Matthew 18:21-35

FORGIVING ONE ANOTHER

Matthew 18:21-35. “Then Peter, coming to Him, said, Lord, how frequently shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? until seven times? Jesus says to him, I do not say unto thee, Until seven times; but, Until seventy times seven.” You see from this response of our Lord that our forgiveness is to be utterly illimitable. The rabbis had taught that three times were often enough. Here you see the verdict is plain and definite we are to forgive on infinitesimally.

“Therefore the kingdom of the heavens is like unto a kingly man, who wished to make a reckoning with his servants. And he, beginning to reckon, one was brought to him owing him ten thousand talents.” What an enormous indebtedness! One talent is four hundred dollars. The Greek word here is i.e., “myriad,” ten thousand but it is in ‘the plural number; hence, tens of thousands. Now, since myriad is in the plural, though the sum is indefinitely large, its minimum is twenty thousand talents; i.e., eight millions. But as the sum is indefinitely great, we have no right to settle on the minimum. Therefore, with the convenience of round numbers, we may conclude that he owed him ten millions of dollars, whereas it might have been infinitely greater. “And he, not being able to pay, the lord commanded him, his wife, and children, and all things so much as he had, to be sold, and payment to be made. Then that servant, falling down, continued to worship him, saying, Be patient with me, and I will pay thee all things. The lord of that servant, being moved with sympathy, sent him away, and forgave him the debt. And that servant, having gone out, found one of his fellow-servants, who owed him a hundred denaria [i.e., fifteen dollars; as the denarion is fifteen cents]; and seizing, throttled him, saying, Pay me what you owe me. Then his fellow-servant, falling down, continued to entreat him, saying, Be patient with me, and I will pay thee. And he was not willing; but going away, cast him into prison until he may pay the debt. Therefore his fellow-servants, seeing the things which were done, were grieved exceedingly, and having come, they explained to their lord all the things which had been done.” The fellow servants here are the saints, who are always grieved when they see an unforgiving spirit among them, and immediately go and tell the Lord about it; i.e., get to praying over it in good earnest. When that is the case, something is sure to happen. “Then his lord, calling him to him, says to him, Thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, since.thou didst entreat me; did it not behoove thee to have mercy on thy fellow-servant, as I also had mercy on thee? And his lord, being angry, delivered him to the tormentors until he may pay all that was due him. Thy My Heavenly Father will do unto you, if you do not each one forgive his brother from your hearts.” You are not only to forgive, but to do it cheerfully and spontaneously, with brotherly love gushing up from the deep interior of the heart; as God forgives you, lovingly, freely, and fully, for Christ's sake. We are not to conclude that God gets angry in the human sense, as He has no malevolent affections nor evil passions, like fallen men and demons.

The language here is an accommodation to our human apprehension, the anger of God being His righteous and holy indignation. I hope you hear, see, and understand this allegorical exegesis, which our Savior gives, in order to elucidate the infinite magnitude of God's forgiving mercy, and the insignificance of ours, even though we do cheerfully, freely, and fully forgive all who have ever done us an injury.

Now, remember the case: The one servant was forgiven ten millions of dollars; and the other only owed him fifteen dollars, only one six- thousandth part of his indebtedness, yet seizing and throttling him, and demanding the payment of the fifteen dollars, and even casting him into prison because he couldn't pay it. Now I hope you see the beautiful and forcible meaning of the allegory. Let the people treat us as badly as they can, our Heavenly Father has actually forgiven us six thousand times as much as all we ever can forgive them all our innumerable sins, in thought, word, and deed, actually amounting to ten millions, contrasted with the fifteen dollars which some one owes us. Now, if we are too vile, selfish, and diabolical to forgive our comrades what little they may owe us, how can we expect God to forgive us the ten millions which we owe Him? Now you see, in the finale of this affair, that the ungrateful servant, who had been forgiven so much, and then refused to pardon his fellow-servant, was actually arrested, and delivered to the tormentors till he paid it all.

This is the great trouble with Churches having fallen out with one another, they refuse to forgive and make friends. Consequently they all fall under condemnation, backslide, as you see in this illustrative case, get back where they were before they were forgiven, forfeiting all the progress they had made in the Divine life, and, if they so persist, finally making their bed in hell. We find whole Churches stranded, befogged, wrecked, and captured by the devil in this way.