Luke 16; Matthew 18:15-35; Luke 17:1-18:14
In the Sermon on the Mount, when Jesus gives us the Lord’s prayer, He immediately stresses that “forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Mt. 6:12) means that if we do not forgive others, God will not forgive us. (See the October 18 post.) Today, Jesus makes the same point again, this time through the dramatic Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. (Matthew 18:21-35) I think we can all read the story and understand its meaning easily enough, even without knowing the exact ratio of value between a “talent” and a “denarius”.
But we have a problem. Although we may nod our heads in agreement, I daresay we generally do not really believe Jesus on this point (or many others, for that matter). Instead, we have bought into a watered-down version of the Gospel that says that if we simply utter “the sinner’s prayer” that we’re good to go. We’ve checked the box. We’re forgiven. We’re going to heaven. Done. Hallelujah! But does that sound anything like what Jesus says here?
Maybe believing in Jesus needs to start with believing Jesus and doing what He says.
See also: