Matthew 6:12

Matthew 6:12. And forgive us our debts, etc. (fifth petition). ‘ Debts,' undoubtedly, moral obligations unfulfilled, i.e., sins. See Matthew 6:14, which requires this sense.

As we have forgiven. ‘As' i.e., 'in the same manner as;' not, ‘to the same extent as,' nor ‘because.' The spirit of forgiveness, which God implants, gives a better assurance of His forgiveness. Our debtors, like ‘debts,' is to be taken in the moral sense. We are sinners, always needing forgiveness; forgiveness and readiness to forgive cannot be separated, the latter being the evidence of the former.