A Heart That Forgives
The king said, “I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” Matthew 18:32-33
“I’ve had it with you. Enough is enough!” Have you said something similar recently? Other people can drain our patience—particularly when they repeat an offense.
In Matthew 18:15-35, Jesus addressed strained relationships between “brothers” (vv. 15, 35). He specifically 
explained what to do when a fellow Christian sins against us (vv. 15-20).
After Peter heard Jesus’ teaching, he asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” (v. 21). Peter probably thought Jesus would commend him for saying seven times, for “rabbis taught that three times was sufficient.”[i]
But Jesus surprised Peter by saying, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (v. 22). The Greek phrase is an idiom, meaning “every time” or “unlimited times.”
Jesus’ response addressed Peter’s heart problem—pride. Jesus then told a parable about a king’s servant who received mercy but was unwilling to extend mercy to someone else.
In that era’s economy, the average worker earned one penny a day. The king’s servant owed 10,000 talents, or over $10 million. His pride prompted him to lie to the king and say, “Be patient with me and I will pay back everything” (v. 26). He knew repayment was impossible as surely as the king did. But the compassionate king released the servant from his debt anyway.
Later, the forgiven servant encountered someone who owed him 100 denarii—a few dollars. But instead of releasing the man from his debt, the king’s servant threw the man in debtor’s prison (v. 30).
Why was he unwilling to forgive? Blinded by arrogance, he dismissed his own faults. Judging himself righteous, he had no compassion for the other man. Neither did he view that man as a cherished brother. As Lewis Smedes says, “Forgiving happens in three stages: We rediscover the humanity of the person who wronged us, we surrender our right to get even, and we wish that person well.”[ii]
To forgive someone who has wronged us, we first must recognize that the God who loves us has released us from an unpayable debt. As that humbling truth softens our heart, the Holy Spirit will infuse us with the grace to both love and forgive others.
DIG DEEPER:
Read Matthew 18:21-35. What happens to the king’s servant at the end of the parable? Who is truly responsible for what happens to him? What do you think Jesus was implying about anyone who refuses to forgive?
Read Ephesians 3:14-19. How can this prayer for understanding God’s love help us forgive those who have wronged us? (See also Romans 5:8, Ephesians 4:32, and Colossians 3:13.)
King Saul sinned against David in many ways for many years. How did David handle that fractured relationship? Read 1 Samuel 24:1-22; 26:1-25.
For more on forgiveness, see Joseph: Part Two and Prayer for Forgiveness.
Denise K. Loock
This devotion is part of a series, The Parables.
[i] This fact, as well as the daily wage and the monetary equivalents cited in the devotion, is taken from The Wiersbe Bible Commentary: New Testament (Colorado Springs: David C. Cook, 2007), 55.
[ii] Lewis B. Smedes, The Art of Forgiving: When You Need to Forgive and Don’t Know How (New York: Ballantine, 1996), 177.