Forgiving People
Matthew 18:21 – 35
Do people really understand the word “Forgive”? My pastor recently preached a message out of the book of Matthew, and as I read further down I ran into this passage. As many others have done, I may have read this passage a hundred times and never got the true meaning until that night. It always amazes me at how God shows me things.
In a very short preview of this particular passage, we see that Peter is in the midst of a conversation with Jesus and does something that many of us would love to do now, and get verbal answers too. He asked a question on a subject matter that he may not have quiet understood. The good thing is that he got his answer right then. He didn’t have to wait or study his Bible to come to an understanding. Jesus told him of a certain king who was owed money by a certain man. The KJV Bible said this man owed the king 10,000 talents. One talent of gold is equal to $26,280.00 in U.S. Currency; if not more today. I don’t know that it was worth that exact amount then, but apparently it was worth a good amount. We know that men today have been killed for a lot less, but 10,000 talents of gold, at today’s value, would be $262,800,000.00. What most of us could do with just 10 talents at today’s market value!
Let’s look at this amount at our current value. This man owed the kings almost 263 million dollars, and the King forgave his debt. The king was going to put this man and family into slavery to pay his debt, but when the man fell before him and asked him for more time, the king had compassion and forgave him of the debt (vs. 27). However, we see that this same man, who was forgiven of 262 million dollars, chose not to forgive a man who owed him ‘an hundred pence’ (vs.28). What a contrast! If this man owed 262 million dollars, wouldn’t it make sense that 15 dollars was just a drop in the bucket? My grandmother told me, long ago, that rich men are never happy with what they have. They just want more. Maybe that is why Jesus said, “It is easier for a camel to go through an eye of a needle than a rich man to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.” However, the focus is not on the wealth that this man did or didn’t have. It’s on the subject of forgiveness. There are three things I think we can learn from this passage that will help us understand true forgiveness.
WE MUST HAVE COMPASSION.
In verses 27 and 33, we find that the king had compassion. The man who owed 262 million dollars was shown compassion and was forgiven. Compassion means to show grace. Compassion is something that is very hard to find in a lot of Christians today. Granted, I don’t know anyone who owes 262 million dollars to anyone else. However, we need to see that this is just an example. Many men and women have problems with forgiving others. In fact they go in all sorts of directions to find fault in others. Today, we find people who will wrongly accuse others just to make themselves look better. What a shame! We want to claim Jesus in our lives, yet we choose to let ourselves be seen instead. We talk about people behind their backs just to see what kind of response we get back. We tear people down just to get ourselves ahead. Don’t let a person do something that offends us or makes us mad. If someone does, we will go out of our way to get revenge. This, my friends is not what compassion is all about. The question that Peter asked was, “How oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” We need to realize that before we can forgive someone, we must have compassion and not look for faults.
WE MUST UNDERSTAND HOW TO FORGIVE OTHERS.
The man who was forgiven of his debt of 262 million dollars didn’t understand the concept that the king showed him. He apparently didn’t learn a very valuable lesson the easy way. He knew that he had been totally forgiven of everything he owned this king. He didn’t show the same forgiveness to another that had been shown to him. Jesus explained this to Peter in verse 35. “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” Jesus used an analogy that most anyone can understand. Today’s thought is forgive your brother 7 times 70. However, Jesus used that as an example of an unending forgiveness. This is not an easy thing for any man to do. I remember a person, who had been offended at how a church had treated its pastor and his family. Now, in my opinion, along with others, the church was wrong for what they did. However, two years later that person had ill feelings toward that church. The statement that the person made was, “I can forgive them, but I just can’t forget.” This is a statement that goes against itself. If you truly, from you heart, forgive someone, then you have forgave them to the point that you do not hold it against them any longer. Man has a tendency to not be able to forget. However, we have the ability, through Christ, to not hold a grudge. Unfortunately, this happen in many churches today. Jesus had a simple rule. In Matthew 6:14 and 15, we see that He said, “For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” How can you expect to be forgiven by God if you can’t show the same forgiveness to those who may or may not really offended you?
WE MUST FORGIVE OTHERS
It is just fact that men will always offend other men. People are going to do things that other people don’t like. Preachers are going to preach things that churches may not necessarily want to hear. However, if they aren’t in the wrong, we shouldn’t dislike them or hold it over their heads. If preachers really preach the Word of God the way it is meant to be preached, and not watered down, then we know that we are probably going to be offended. Why? Because, we don’t like that fact that we are being shown that we are wrong. We want to always be patted on the back and we don’t like feeling bad. We would rather feel good. As I said earlier; people will always offend other people. However, if we really want to live for Christ, then we must be willing to forgive them instantly. They shouldn’t have to ask us to forgive them either. However, if we should be offended, do as the Bible instructs us to do. Go directly to that person and tell them in a loving way that you were offended by them through their words or deeds. Chances are, they weren’t trying to offend you in the first place. However, even if they don’t apologize for their wrong, forgive them anyway. To do this, we must show compassion and love. May God always been seen through each of our lives, and may we all be compassionate with a Godly compassion toward each person.
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