"For this reason , the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his slaves. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed him 10.000 talents was brought before him. Since he had no way to pay it back, his master commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be sold to pay the debt. At this the slave fell face down before him and said, "be patient with me, and I will pay you everything." Then the master of that slave had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan.
But the slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him 100 denarii. He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, "pay what you owe."
At this his fellow slave fell down and began begging him, "be patient with me, and I will pay you back." But he wasn't willing. On the contrary he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what he owed.
When the other slaves saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened.
Then after he summoned him, his master said to him, "You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn't you also have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you?" And his master got angry and handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything he owed. So my heavenly father will also do to you if each of you does not forgive his brother from his heart."Matthew 18:23-35
Jesus was not telling a story just for the sake of a story he was telling us a truth we need to listen to. If we do not forgive we are not forgiven plain and simple.
No comments:
Post a Comment