Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant...........

Parable Of The Unforgiving Servant

In Matthew 18:21-35 we read: "Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellow servants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses."

In the first part of the parable a king called his officials (servants) together for an appointed day of accounting. One of them owed him the astonishing sum of ten thousand talents, an amount which implies millions. In fact, the word for ten thousand has an underlying basic meaning of that which is numberless, countless, infinite. The servant did not want to be sold with his family into slavery to repay the debt so, he fell down and worshipped his master and he pleaded for mercy, not for remission. He promised restitution, knowing that in a lifetime he could only make a small dent in repayment and no more. In response to his earnest plea, the servant received what he had least expected - total forgiveness of his entire debt. His master took pity on him, canceled the entire debt and let him go. The second part of the parable shows how the servant responded to a fellow servant who owed him a small sum of money. Instead of forgiving his fellow servant as his master had forgiven him he grabbed him by the throat and demanded immediate payment. “Pay back what you owe me!” When the fellow servant could not - he cast him into prison until he could repay all. The third and final part of the parable shows the response of the servant’s master when he found out that the servant he had just forgiven - refused to do the same for a fellow servant who owed him a small sum of money. Only after he refused to forgive his fellow servant - the king delivered him to the tormentors (demons) until he fully repaid the greater sum. So will G-d do unto us if we do not forgive our fellow servants.

I remember when I had some brethren that I trusted - steal a great deal from me and I forgave them but, I continued to be tormented. I forgave them daily and still continued to be tormented until I cried out to G-d and asked why I still was being tormented - especially after I had forgiven these people almost daily for quite a while. Finally I heard Him say to me: "Forgive them like I have forgiven you and then forget that they ever harmed you! In Psalm 103:12 we read: "As far as the east is from the west, [so] far hath he removed our transgressions from us." If we remember the sin we have not really forgiven the sin!

The prophet Amos speaks of G-d forgiving transgression three times, but warns that G-d may not revoke punishment for the fourth time (see Amos 1:3-13; 2:1-6). When Peter asked Jesus this question of forgiveness, Peter offered an answer he thought Jesus would be pleased with. Why not forgive seven times! But, Jesus said that one must forgive seventy times that. Jesus made it clear that there is no reckonable limit to forgiveness. And He drove the lesson home with a parable about two very different kinds of debts. The first man owed an enormous sum of money -- The talent in this parable was worth about 6,000 denarii, so that one debt is 600,000 times as large as the other. More significantly,10,000 (a myriad) was the highest Greek numeral, and a talent the largest unit of currency, so that 10,000 talents was the largest easily described debt (for comparison, the combined annual tribute of Judea, Samaria, and Idumea around this time was only 600 talents, and one denarius was a day's wages, so that 10,000 talents would be about 200,000 years' wages. In Jesus' time this amount was greater than the total revenue of a province -- more than it would cost to ransom a king! The man who was forgiven such an incredible debt could not, however bring himself to forgive his fellow servant a very small debt which was about one-hundred-thousandth of his own debt. The contrast could not have been greater! No offence our fellow servants can do to us can compare with our debt we personally owe to G-d! We have been forgiven a debt which is beyond all paying; to ransom our debt of sin G-d gave up his only begotten Son. If G-d has forgiven each of us all of our debts, we must forgive others any debts they owe us. Jesus teaches that one must forgive in order to be forgiven. If we do not forgive our fellow man we cannot expect G-d to forgive us. James says that judgment is without mercy (Psalm 101:1) to one who has shown no mercy (James 2:13). If we really want G-d's mercy shown to us we must be ready to forgive others as G-d has forgiven us. If you do not believe this is necessary dear one - you should never say the Lord's Prayer - because you are asking G-d to forgive you the exactly the same way you forgive others.

We are never more like Jesus than when we quickly forgive those who have sinned against us, harmed us, irritated us and/or broken our hearts. Unforgiveness, anger, bitterness, and self-pity will quench the Spirit just as easily as sexual immorality, drunkenness, lying, gossip, or any other sin. There is no double standard when it comes to sin. Sin grieves G-d, including the sin of unforgiveness and unresolved anger. (Ephesians 4:26-27, 30-32). Just as we need to ask G-d for our daily bread we must daily deal with this matter of forgiveness. Unforgiveness is sin and it grieves the Holy Spirit. We as children of G-d through our faith in Jesus Christ have had all our sins forgiven. Therefore, when someone offends us or sins against us we should be willing to forgive them all from a heart of gratitude for the grace to which we ourselves are greater debtors. When you willfully refuse to forgive dear one - you are treading on very dangerous ground. Hebrews 10:26-31 & Matthew 6:12.

Love one another!