When people offend us, often all we can think about is what they have done and how they have hurt us. We think and think about how much we have been mistreated, becoming angrier and angrier by the moment. What we do not often think about when we have been offended is that we, too, have had moments where we have hurt people and been in need of forgiveness. In fact, we are in just as much need of forgiveness as the person who has hurt and offended us.
In order to remind us that we are in great need of forgiveness, Jesus told a story in Matthew 18. The story involved two debtors. One debtor owed the king a huge debt that was the equivalent of millions of dollars today (verse 24). Unable to pay the debt, this man begged for more time to pay the debt off (verses 25-26). In a shocking act of mercy and forgiveness, the king forgave his debt completely and canceled it (verse 27). Now, one would expect this man to rejoice over his forgiven debt and celebrate. Instead, he went straight to a man who owed him the equivalent of "a few thousand dollars" of debt (verse 28). Of course, this debt paled in comparison to his debt that the king had just forgiven. This debtor begged him for more time to pay off the debt, but he refused and “had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full” (verse 30). When the king, who had forgiven the original debt of millions of dollars, heard this, he was furious. The man had not learned anything from the extravagant mercy and forgiveness he had been shown. He forgot that he, too, had been shown great mercy and, as a result, refused to forgive.
My friend, we have been forgiven so much. We have all broken God's heart and purposefully sinned against Him, choosing our own selfish desires instead of Him. The apostle Paul reminds us of this when he wrote in Ephesians 2:2, "You used to live in sin, just like the rest of the world." In His kindness, God has forgiven each one of us when we turned to Him. This forgiveness must not be taken lightly. May we always remember how gracious and merciful God has been to us through the forgiveness He has freely extended toward us.
Is there any sin you need to confess to God? Bring it before Him today. Confess the sins you have committed that have broken His heart and hurt others. Ask God to forgive you of these sins and to help you move forward so that you can live in a way that honors Him by the words you say and the things you do.
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
