Forgiveness is such a simple concept and yet at times so hard to give. It costs us nothing yet we guard it like precious gold. What is at stake that we are so hesitant to forgive others in our lives? I am sure pride plays a role in it and feeling exhausted over repeated offenses plays a role as well. Perhaps the greatest stumbling block to our forgiving others is the hurt they have caused us. We have been hurt and we are not willing to open ourselves up to take a chance that we will be hurt again. We are not willing to allow the offending party to pour salt in an open wound; it seems much better to us that we should let the wound slowly heal for the rest of our lives and never risk injury again. If we are lost men then I suppose this creates no crisis of conscience, or at least it is very seldom that it will. But as saved men we have a litany of issues that assault our conscience if forgiveness is something we are not willing to give, even when it seems impossible to do so.
Matt. 18:21-35, “Then came Peter to Him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Till seven times? Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven. Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt. But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, pay me that thou owest. And his fellowservant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. So when his fellowservants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee? And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”
The above passage will form the basis for our study for it tells us all we need to know regarding forgiveness of others, especially offending brothers. There are indeed other appropriate passages worth consideration but we will limit ourselves primarily to this.
Endless Forgiveness
The first concept we are going to deal with here is found in
¨ Peter… realizes that he must forgive the brother who has sinned against him, that is, that he must take the initiative in bringing about complete reconciliation; but how often must he reveal this merciful attitude, this disposition of sweet reasonableness? Must he forgive “up to seven times?” Peter may have been of the opinion that Jesus would praise him for his bigheartedness. If so, his expectation was not fulfilled. There was something wrong with Peter’s approach. It smacked of rabbinism. It sounded as if the forgiving spirit were a commodity that could be weighed, measured, and counted; as if it could be parceled out little by little up to a certain and well defined limit, when further distribution would have to stop… Jesus, though in manner of expression falling in line with Peter’s quantitively worded question, completely destroys the apostle’s underlying assumption. [Christ shows] that the spirit of genuine forgiveness recognizes no boundaries. It is a state of the heart, not a matter of calculation. One might as well ask, “How often must I love my wife, my husband, my children?” as to ask, “How often shall I forgive?” Everyone immediately senses that when Jesus said, “up to seventy times seven times,” he did not mean, “exactly four hundred ninety times, but not four hundred ninety one.” Clearly what he meant was, “Forgive without ever stopping. Be kind toward your brother… always.” William Hendriksen, Commentary on Matthew, pp 704-705.
¨ […] there are those who think that Peter’s mention of seven times arose from our Savior’s command [in Lu. 17:4], that we should forgive our bother offending us seven times, when our Savior by it intended not a certain and definite number, but a number uncertain and indefinite. Matthew Poole, Commentary on the Holy Bible, vol. 3, pg 86
¨ [Peter] thinks it a great matter to forgive till seven times; he means not seven times a day, as Christ said (Lu. 17:4), but seven times in his life; supposing that if a man had any way abused him seven times, thought he were ever so desirous to be reconciled, he might then abandon his society, and have no more to do with him… Christ’s direct answer to Peter’s question; I say not unto thee; until seven times (He never intended to set up any such bounds), but until seventy times seven; a certain number for an indefinite one, but a great one… It does not look well for us to keep count of the offenses done against us by our brethren. There is something of ill-nature in scoring up the injuries we forgive, as if we would allow ourselves to be revenged when the measure is full. God keeps an account (Deut. 32:34) because He is the Judge, and vengeance is His; but we must not, lest we be found stepping into His throne. It is necessary to the preservation of peace, both within and without, to pass by injuries, without reckoning how often; to forgive, and forget. God multiplies His pardons, and so must we, Ps. 77:38, 40. It intimates that we should make it our constant practice to forgive injuries, and should accustom ourselves to it till it becomes habitual. Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible, pg 1357
¨ Peter made this objection according to the natural feelings of the flesh. It is natural to all men to wish to be forgiven; and, therefore, if any man does not immediately obtain forgiveness, he complains he is treated with sternness and cruelty. But those who demand to be treated gently are far from being equally gentle towards others… [Peter] asks, therefore, if it be proper to frequently forgive offenders; for, since the number seven taken for a large number, the force of the adverb… seven times, is the same as if he had said, “How long, Lord, dost thou wish that offenders be received into favor? For it is unreasonable, and by no means advantageous, that they should, in every case, find us willing to be reconciled.” But Christ is so far from yielding to this objection, that He expressly declares that there ought to be no limit to forgiving; for He did not intend to lay down a fixed number, but rather to enjoin us never to become wearied. John Calvin, Calvin’s Commentaries, vol. XVI, pp 363-364
It is abundantly obvious that the expectation of forgiveness from our Lord has no fixed number of times. There will never be a time that we will have forgiven “x” number of times and say that we have fulfilled our duty and thus there is nothing more expected of us. The thrust of Christ’s command to us here is that there should be limitless forgiveness for others. In the next section we see why.
God Has Forgiven Us
Much and We Must Forgive Others
Now we take a look at what our motivation is for endless forgiveness. It is not merely obedience to a command, which would be sufficient in and of itself; it is also, and more importantly, because we look at our own lives in relation to the Lord and we see that He has forgiven far more in each of us than we could ever possibly have to even attempt to forgive in others.
This is seen in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, Matt. 18:23-34. The servant had somehow accumulated an incredible sum of debt which William Hendriksen equates be in our day something like ten million dollars. For the servant, his entire life’s earnings may have only been something like on thousand talents and yet he owed ten times that. Standing before the king he throws himself down and begs for time to pay the debt and the king has pity on him. Not only does he grant him the request but in an incredible act of kindness and generosity he actually forgives the debt altogether. Then that servant who had been forgiven so much goes out and assaults a man that owes him money but is unable to pay. Viciously he grabs the man by throat and demands his money (which was only about 1/600000 of the debt he had just been forgiven himself) and when the man begs for time he has him thrown into prison and forced labor until the debt can be worked off. But the wicked servant didn’t know that word had gotten back to the king, and this is where we jump back in.
“Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me: shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?”
¨ Note the vividness of “You wicked servant”… The original is very emphatic. It places the words “all that debt” at they very beginning of what follows after “You wicked servant.” (I could not find a modern translation that did not reverse the word order to a more modern English application of sentence structure.) The immensity of the debt thus stands out, and so do the amazing character of the generosity that had been shown, and the baseness of the first servant’s refusal to allow this noble spirit to govern his actions. “Should you not…?” means, “Was this not your lasting obligation?” It was this man’s duty not only to be filled with unceasing gratitude but also to let his master’s mercy of which he, the servant, had been the recipient, be and remain a pattern or example of his own feeling and conduct toward his fellow men… Prompted by gratitude the forgiven sinner must always yearn to forgive whoever has trespassed against him, and must do all in his power to bring about complete reconciliation. William Hendriksen, Commentary on Matthew, pg 708-709
¨ It is but reasonable, what ought to be, and may be expected, that such who have received mercy, should show mercy; and as the lord had compassion on this man, and had forgiven him such an immense sum, and saved him, his wife and children, from being sold for bondslaves, the least he could have done after this, would have been to have followed such an example, and have had mercy… Such an instance of pity and compassion did not only set him an example, worthy of his imitation, but laid him under an obligation to have acted such a part. John Gill, Commentary on Matthew
¨ This parable instructeth us in these truths: 1) That as men, by the law and nature of God, and the laws of men, may be debtors to us, to our reputation, to our estate; so we are all debtors to the glory, honor, and justice of God. 2) That it is a vast debt that we owe to God’s honor and justice, to which no debt owing by any to us can bear any proportion. 3) That we have nothing to pay to God, in satisfaction for our debt. 4) That God hath a right to demand full satisfaction of us. 5) That God, for Christ’s sake, upon our application to Him for mercy, will forgive us our debts. 6) That we are not so ready to forgive our brethren their little injuries, as God is to forgive us… 8) That we ought to set before us God’s compassion towards us, and free love in forgiving us, potently to move us to forgive those who have done us injury, and to forgive them out of that consideration. Matthew Poole, Commentary on the Holy Bible, vol. 3, pg 87
¨ […] unmercifulness is wickedness, it is great wickedness… The greatness of sin magnifies the richness of pardoning mercy: we should think how much has been forgiven us, Lu.
As we see, our primary motivation for forgiving others is the forgiveness we ourselves have been given by God Himself. We must consider how much we each have sinned and then remember that God has forgiven all of those sins as well as the sins we have yet to even commit. When we get to that point we will have a small understanding of what God has done for us. But even then we will have a dramatically insufficient view of our own sin for as David prayed so to should we, “cleanse thou me from secret faults,” Ps.
We will continue and complete the study in Part 2...
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