
Matthew 18
In Matthew 18:21-35, Jesus gives his disciples a parable that is related to forgiveness. In the parable, a man is presented before a king to pay back the debt that he owes. Unfortunately for the man, the debt that he owes is extremely high and impossible to pay back. The king is shown to be compassionate, and forgives the man for the debt. The story then takes a turn for the worst; the man does not forgive a slave for the debt that he owes, even though the debt owed to him was absurdly smaller than the debt he owed to the king. He faced great punishment when the king found out.
The principle of this parable is this; forgiveness is crucial to being accepted by God. We have been forgiven our debt of sin before God, thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, which is a debt that can never be repaid. We need to have an attitude of forgiveness because of this fact. Nothing that anyone else has done to us can even compare to what Jesus had to go through for us, so we need to be ready to forgive, just as we were forgiven.
Have you forgiven others this week for wronging you? Is there something that you need to let go of? Do you have an attitude of forgiveness today?
-Talon Paul
