Jesus said that if we don’t forgive others, God won’t forgive us. Point blank warning.
The parable of the servant who taste the joy of forgiveness in every aspect but refused to forgive others didn’t do so because he hadn’t received forgiveness at all. I know there is teaching out there that insists we will just automatically do the teachings of Christ with no effort but if one looks at christians one doesn’t see this effect. The teaching is relieve us of the struggle to obey. Those who embrace it likely don’t, waiting for it to just kick in.
I look at the big time criminals I taught Sunday School in prison and saw an unbelievable huge change in hem when they finially were baptized and I teach young Chinese Men ether in Communist China now or will be going back and I have seen huge changes in them.
Asa Far as Matt. 18
Did God take His forgiveness back?
God is forgiving everyone of all their sins all the time, but that does not mean forgiveness took place for all people. Atonement, forgiveness and Love are all transactions, requiring action from both parties to complete the process.
I teach the parable Matt. 18: 21-35 “The Parable of the Unmerciful Servant” lots and would like your comments on this parable.
A lot of commentaries (especially Calvinistic Commentaries) tell us what this parable does not teach, but give little support for what it does teach, so what is it teaching us?
What can we hopefully agree with from the information given and please give other options if you have them and scripture to back it up:
1. The “debt” is huge 10,000 bags of Gold (5+ billion dollars) or 10,000 bags of silver (100 million dollars) no matter, either are way above what could be paid back by a servant. Gold or silver, this is virtually an impossible amount for one person to ever owe in the first century and everyone Jesus was addressing would have realized this. Spiritually this debt would represent each of our debts created by our sinning against God and Jesus said: “The man was
not able to pay”?
2. The servant asks ‘
Give me time,’ he begged. ‘
I’ll pay everything back.’ Is this a lie to the master or how could he not know he could not pay it back? Was the Master so stupid as to entrust a stupid servant with this much money?
3. Jesus said: “He forgave him what he owed”, but was that what the servant was asking for?
4. Could the servant have felt: “he got away with something by asking for more time”, “the master is gullible”, “he still owes master but given more time”, “the master must like him to forgive him”?
5. Matt.18:28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. This sounds like: the first servant immediate went out and found a fellow servant of the Master with little time elapsing, so is he unloving to a servant of the master?
6. Jesus teaches us in Luke 7:36-50 “… he that is forgiven much loves much…”, so since this first servant was forgiven of such a unbelievable huge debt he would automatically and have to have an unbelievable huge Love which would easily be seen in his actions. How could this servant be unloving toward a servant of the Master if he Loved the master?
7. How could the Master “handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.” Since the master had forgiven the debt the servant owed, so the servant owed the Master nothing, since no other debt is mentioned?
8. If the servant has to payback this unbelievable huge debt before the torture can stop how long will that take and does that not sound like hell?
9. Since the servant shows no great love after the Master forgave him and since the servant still owes the master the huge debt; forgiveness must not have taken place even though the master did His part perfectly was there a part the
servant had to play to complete the forgiveness transaction?
10. If there is a part the sinner must play (humbly accepting the pure charity as charity) in the forgiveness process, would it take anything away from God’s sovereignty?
The transaction of forgiveness is a reconciling experience if received correctly, since the receiver of the forgiveness is going to “Love” the forgiver, according to the amount he was forgiven.
Lots of times a “forgiven” debt brings division like unforgiven debt divide people, because the receiver of the debt still feels he needs to pay the forgiver back, the memory of the debt remains and sometimes the forgiver thinks less of the person he forgave, since he did not really do it out of charity.
When I tried to “give” people money and let them know it is given as pure charity, they have said on the way out: “When I get back on my feet, I will pay you back” or “OK, so you are paying forward by giving me this money”. When they do understand that this money is part of the money, I would have given to other charities and I am giving it to them instead of other charities I support, they can see themselves as being like one of the charities, I love, which is the way I am seeing them. I will be keeping up with them like the other charities I Love.
If the person does not accept the forgiveness of the debt, as pure undeserved charity, my forgiving them will do more harm to them than good and this takes more work on my part to explain to them what I did and what they received. We become like the Master in that when we find out the receiver of our forgiveness did not receive it as pure charity, we have to confront the receiver with the truth (we sometimes do not like this part of the parable, because it is work for us).