Matthew 18:21-35 - Budgeting Forgiveness

Did you know that God's forgiveness comes with two strings attached to it?

We are told “...just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you.” (Colossians 3:13, NASB95)

The first string is implicit--"Just as the Lord forgave you..."
That assumes that you've been forgiven. Here's the catch: it implies that you admitted to needing God's forgiveness in the first place.

The second string is, "so also should you." Some people accept God's forgiveness but then assume that they can refuse to forgive others.

Not so.

Jesus put it this way as a commentary on "The Lord's Prayer."

“If you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you. But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Matthew 6:14-15, New Living Translation, 2015)

Peter was uncomfortable with forgiving others without limits; he wanted to budget his forgiveness.

Matthew 18:21–35 (New Living Translation, 2015) — 21 [So] Peter came to [Jesus] and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?” 22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven! 23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him. 24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars. 25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt. 26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’ 27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt. 28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment. 29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded. 30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full. 31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened. 32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt. 35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”

The principle is this: Receiving forgiveness is inseparable from extending forgiveness.

And so Jesus taught us to pray:

"Our Father in heaven...Forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us." Amen. (Matthew 6:12, NLT)