15 “If your fellow believer sins against you, go and tell him in private what he did wrong. If he listens to you, you have helped that person to be your brother or sister again. 16 But if he refuses to listen, go to him again and take one or two other people with you. ‘Every case may be proved by two or three witnesses.’ 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell the church. If he refuses to listen to the church, then treat him like a person who does not believe in God or like a tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, the things you don’t allow on earth will be the things God does not allow. And the things you allow on earth will be the things that God allows.
19 “Also, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about something and pray for it, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. 20 This is true because if two or three people come together in my name, I am there with them.”
21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, when my fellow believer sins against me, how many times must I forgive him? Should I forgive him as many as seven times?”
22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, you must forgive him more than seven times. You must forgive him even if he wrongs you seventy times seven.
23 “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who decided to collect the money his servants owed him. 24 When the king began to collect his money, a servant who owed him several million dollars was brought to him. 25 But the servant did not have enough money to pay his master, the king. So the master ordered that everything the servant owned should be sold, even the servant’s wife and children. Then the money would be used to pay the king what the servant owed.
26 “But the servant fell on his knees and begged, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’ 27 The master felt sorry for his servant and told him he did not have to pay it back. Then he let the servant go free.
28 “Later, that same servant found another servant who owed him a few dollars. The servant grabbed him around the neck and said, ‘Pay me the money you owe me!’
29 “The other servant fell on his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything I owe.’
30 “But the first servant refused to be patient. He threw the other servant into prison until he could pay everything he owed. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very sorry. So they went and told their master all that had happened.
32 “Then the master called his servant in and said, ‘You evil servant! Because you begged me to forget what you owed, I told you that you did not have to pay anything. 33 You should have showed mercy to that other servant, just as I showed mercy to you.’ 34 The master was very angry and put the servant in prison to be punished until he could pay everything he owed.
35 “This king did what my heavenly Father will do to you if you do not forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
Read Matthew 18:15-35 in context and/or in other translations on BibleGateway.com!
Later on during Jesus’ ministry, He shares a powerful parable to help support the message that while we are forgiven, we are expected to be forgiving towards each other. In the details of this parable, we discover a king has a servant who has an impossible-to-repay debt. Conservatively, this debt is in the millions of dollars, but it might even extend into the billions.
In some ways, it is easier to calculate this debt in the number of lifetimes it would take someone to repay it, and in the case of the debt the man has in this parable, it would take more than 137 lifetimes to repay. The servant in this parable truly has an impossible-to-repay debt.
However, the king forgives the debt. A simple meeting and a heartfelt plea convinces the king to write off the millions or billions of dollars that were owed. On the surface, it appears as though this servant is now free.
But when we look at the details and place ourselves in the servant’s shoes, while we are not required to repay the debt we previously owed, the gift of kindness places an equally impossible debt on us in the form of gratitude. The debt of gratitude says we should always be forever grateful to God (a.k.a. the King) for repaying our literal debt.
In this scenario, there is literally no way of truly being out of debt – because either we have a debt of sin, or we have a debt of gratitude.
I shared this with some people and was challenged with the idea that we cannot love those we are in debt to. While it makes for a catchy thought, I don’t believe it is 100% true. The fallacy in this thinking is that all forms of debt are equal and that all forms of debt contain equal tension from both parties.
While it sounds similar, I think a more accurate statement would go something like this: You cannot love someone you feel owes you something – but you can love someone who has blessed you more than you could ever repay.
If you are in a situation you could never repay, by definition, you are in debt, but this debt is different because it can only be resolved through forgiveness. While there is nothing we could ever do to repay God for His amazing gift of Jesus on the cross, this tiny detail technically makes us indebted to God.
However, God paid our sin-debt because He loves us, not because He wanted us to be feel forever indebted to Him. God forgives us in order to make it possible for Him to love us. He would have it no other way.
Debts of gratitude are different because the only way we can truly repay them is by paying them forward. God wants us to be so incredibly grateful and thankful for what He has done for us that we cannot help extending forgiveness, grace, and love forward to those we interact with.
This thought was inspired by studying the Walking With Jesus “Reflective Bible Study” package. To discover insights like this in your own study time, click here and give Reflective Bible Study a try today!
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