This morning I have felt convicted to share this section of Matthew about forgiveness because I believe it is a matter of life and death when it comes to receiving salvation. In the parable of the unforgiving servant we see how the master sees all of the debt that the servant owes and completely forgives it. The master completely wipes his slate clean. This is what Jesus has done for us. Once the servant accepts this free gift of forgiveness from his master he moves on with his life. He then comes up on a situation where his servant owes him a debt. Instead of forgiving his servant’s debt (like his master did for him) he chooses to choke his servant and demand the payment his servant owes him. Once the unforgiving servant’s master found out about this he sent him to jail to be tortured until he could pay what he owed. The moral of the parable is forgiven people forgive people. In this parable we should all put ourselves in the position of the unforgiving servant. God is the overall master in this story that has forgiven us for all of our sin debt. Here is the question that every person who thinks they have received salvation from Jesus Christ should ask themselves daily. Am I walking around with unforgiveness? Or am I walking around with a grudge towards someone else for what they did to me? According to this parable if we have truly accepted the forgiveness that our master has given us we will forgive others. God will show the same mercy to us that we show to others. One of the greatest ways that we can reflect the love of Christ is by truly showing forgiveness. One of the tests you can run on yourself to know if you have truly received salvation is if you are able to forgive. If the Holy Spirit dwells inside of you, you should be able to forgive. That is what Jesus Christ came to this earth to do was to forgive sin. When reading this we should take a good hard look inside of ourselves and ask ourselves is there something or someone we are holding a grudge towards? When we hold onto a grudge it ferments and becomes bigger and bigger the longer we hold onto it. I want to challenge everyone including myself to evaluate ourselves today. If there is something we are holding onto that nobody else knows about we need to forgive it and squash it today. I know it doesn’t make sense but it affects us more than it affects the people we haven’t forgiven. To be like Christ we have to learn to forgive like Christ. One of the most effective ways we move on from who we used to be is by forgiving ourselves and forgiving others. Luke 6:37-38 says, “Do not judge, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; a good measure — pressed down, shaken together, and running over — will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.” Treat forgiveness with the utmost importance. Like I said at the start, forgiven people forgive people. If we can’t forgive how can we truly accept the forgiveness Jesus extends to us? Love y’all! Have a great day!
Matthew 18:15-35
Read scripture…
“If your brother sins against you, go tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have won your brother. But if he won’t listen, take one or two others with you, so that by the testimony of two or three witnesses every fact may be established. , If he doesn’t pay attention to them, tell the church. , If he doesn’t pay attention even to the church, let him be like a Gentile and a tax collector to you. Truly I tell you, whatever you bind on earth will have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will have been loosed in heaven. Again, truly I tell you, if two of you on earth agree about any matter that you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered together in my name, I am there among them.” Then Peter approached him and asked, “Lord, how many times must I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? As many as seven times? ” “I tell you, not as many as seven,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven. “For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle accounts, one who owed ten thousand talents was brought before him. Since he did not have the money 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 servant fell facedown before him and said, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.’ Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and forgave him the loan. “That servant went out and found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. , He grabbed him, started choking him, and said, ‘Pay what you owe! ’ “At this, his fellow servant fell down and began begging him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.’ But he wasn’t willing. Instead, he went and threw him into prison until he could pay what was owed. When the other servants saw what had taken place, they were deeply distressed and went and reported to their master everything that had happened. Then, after he had summoned him, his master said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. Shouldn’t you also have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you? ’ And because he was angry, his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured until he could pay everything that was owed. So also my heavenly Father will do to you unless every one of you forgives his brother or sister from your heart.”
Leave a Reply