The Life of Christ

From a purely legal standpoint, this first servant had the grounds to press charges to have this second servant arrested.

• Such an act, however, was both contemptuous and foolish; this eliminates the second servant’s earning power in order to repay the debt.

• The more serious inequity belongs to the first servant, having already received such vast forgiveness, who now refuses to grant even a microscopic portion of what he has just been granted.

When we choose not to forgive a fellow believer, we cast that person into a place of “ emotional prison. ”

• Their only release is our decision to forgive the debt.

Mt. 18:31 “So, when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened.”

Others soon observe our attitude of unforgiveness toward a brother or sister.

God, however, is the ultimate observer.

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Mt. 18:32 “Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you entreated me.’”

The king does remember the former debt, even though He did forgive it, illustrating how God the Father technically remembers the sin He forgave us.

• Though no longer accounted, it will still always remain within the memory of His omniscience.

• Ps. 103:12 says, “As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” This does not mean that He forgets our transgressions, but instead implies that He no longer holds us accountable for our sins.

Mt. 18:33 “Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?”

Here stands the moral of the story. As God had compassion upon us by forgiving such an endless measure of sin, we stand under divine obligation to also forgive those who sin against us.

• In the Sermon on the Mount, following the Lord’s prayer, the only commentary Jesus offers on the entire prayer is this: “For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses” (Mt. 6:14-15). Mt. 18:34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed him.”

It doesn’t specifically say he was cast into debtor’s prison, as we find of the other servant in verse 30.

• Instead, he is delivered to the torturers, who fulfill the role of “heavy -handed debt collectors.”

• This was the worst of all prison circumstances.

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