{"id":9714,"date":"2022-11-17T00:00:53","date_gmt":"2022-11-16T14:00:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/?p=9714"},"modified":"2022-11-19T03:44:15","modified_gmt":"2022-11-18T17:44:15","slug":"the-danger-of-unforgiveness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/2022\/11\/17\/the-danger-of-unforgiveness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Danger of Unforgiveness"},"content":{"rendered":"

Matthew 18:32-34\u00a032<\/sup>Then calling him, his master said to him, \u2018You evil servant! All that debt I forgave you because you pleaded with me. <\/i>33<\/sup>And was it not necessary for you to have\u00a0mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?\u2019 <\/i>34<\/sup>And in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he should pay all his debt. <\/i>35\u00a0<\/sup>So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.\u201d<\/i><\/p>\n

The third scene of the parable provides another surprising reversal. The master who extended mercy and forgiveness to the hugely indebted servant hears of that servant’s response to his fellow servants who owed him a small amount. This time, the reversal backfires on the servant. He is caught and no mercy is extended to him. The master follows through with his original threat of justice.\u00a0The final section shows the fate that awaits those who do not forgive others.<\/p>\n

True disciples must actualize the kingdom of God by modeling the grace of God by extending forgiveness to others.\u00a0Jesus shows the unlimited forgiveness available in God’s kingdom. Disciples have a responsibility to extend the forgiveness they have received from God.\u00a0The response we must give to others is implied with the thought, “Go and do likewise.”<\/p>\n

The mission of disciples is to actualize the God’s kingdom in the world by living out Christ’s presence within us. The disciples learned an important lesson about the radicalness of God’s kingdom. We have a responsibility as God’s children to model God. The servant was not willing to become like his master. Our sinful selves are tempted to unforgiveness, being critical, and highlighting the faults of others while not seeing our own problems. In this parable, the disciples learned that along with mercy comes justice, and this justice is based upon judgment of their actions towards their brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n

When we experience the love God has towards us and really accept that by realizing the depth of our sin, we cannot hep but want to extend that love to others. If we fail to love by forgiving, we are showing that we do not love God. Because God has forgiven us, we are then enabled to forgive others. The parable makes clear that we will be held accountable to God for how we respond to others.<\/p>\n

This parable illustrates the teaching found in the Sermon on the Mount. Discples must extend mercy (5:7) and righteousness (5:20). We forgive as we have been forgiven (6:12). God’s forgiveness of us is directly related to how we forgive others (6:14-15). The measure we use towards others will be measured to us (7:2). Chapter 18 has highlighted kingdom life as the church in community. This chapter shows what it means to live out the Sermon on the Mount as the church, God’s community of grace-filled believers. We also learn that God’s justice will not be overlooked for those who refuse to live according to kingdom principles. God’s justice is always joined with God’s grace. How we experience these will depend on our attitude and actions towards others.<\/p>\n

For older posts, click\u00a0here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Subscribe to Daily Devotions by Email<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Matthew 18:32-34\u00a032Then calling him, his master said to him, \u2018You evil servant! All that debt I forgave you because you pleaded with me. 33And was it not necessary for you to have\u00a0mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?\u2019 34And in anger his master handed him over to the torturers until he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-devotions","post-preview"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9714"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9734,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9714\/revisions\/9734"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/acky4.com\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}