14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. ~ Matthew 6:14-15
In Matthew 18, Jesus tells the parable of the Unforgiving Servant. There was a servant who owed his master 10,000 talents, but he could not pay his debt, so he pleaded with his master, and so the master forgave him of his debt. When the servant went out from his master, he found a fellow servant who could not pay him, which was 100 denarii, and he choked the servant. Because the servant could not pay what he owed him, the servant, whose debt was just forgiven, threw him in prison until he could pay what he owed. When his fellow servants saw this, they went to their master and told him what had happened. His master then says that he will be put away until he can pay his debt. Let’s just put this into perspective for a second.
The servant who was forgiven owed 10,000 talents. A talent was worth about 20 years’ wages for labor, whereas the other servant owed the forgiven servant only 100 denarii, which was only a day’s wage. In January 2019, the average wage for a workday was $184.8, so the servant owed the forgiven servant about $18,480. The forgiven servant owed his master about $9,646,560,000. (average day 184.8*100 = 18,480) (average day 184.8*average days in a year 261=48,232.8*20=964,656*10,000=9,646,560,000)
And this is what a lot of us are doing today. We hold on to the pain, hurt, anger from an event caused by someone in our past or in our present, and we refuse to forgive them. We feel entitled to unforgiveness because we were wronged so badly, but yet we expect God to forgive us for all that we have done. We expect God to turn a blind eye to our debt when we can’t turn a blind eye to the debt of others.
Our debt to God is so much more than anyone’s debt to us. When we forgive others, God forgives us. He pays our debt for us. Then He takes the weight off of our shoulders so that the pain can no longer hold us down.
Peace. Love. Go Forth and Forgive Each Other’s Debts.
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