SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 1/22/2023 8:04 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-1 “The
Example of Forgiveness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
Matt. 18:23-35
Message of the verses: “23 "For this reason
the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a certain king who wished to settle
accounts with his slaves. 24 “And when he had begun to settle them,
there was brought to him one who owed him ten thousand talents. 25 “But since
he did not have the means to repay, his lord commanded him to be sold,
along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.
26 “The slave therefore falling down, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have
patience with me, and I will repay you everything.’ 27 “And the lord of that
slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. 28 “But that
slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred
denarii; and he seized him and began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay
back what you owe.’ 29 “So his fellow slave fell down and began to
entreat him, saying, ‘Have patience with me and I will repay you.’ 30 “He was
unwilling however, but went and threw him in prison until he should pay back
what was owed. 31 “So when his fellow slaves saw what had happened, they were
deeply grieved and came and reported to their lord all that had happened. 32 “Then
summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that
debt because you entreated me. 33 ‘Should you not also have had mercy on your
fellow slave, even as I had mercy on you?’ 34 "And his lord, moved with
anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed
him. 35 “So shall My heavenly Father also do to you, if each of you does not
forgive his brother from your heart.’”
The
first thing that I want to say is that we will be looking at the parable that
Jesus was speaking here for a fairly long time now, and so it will only be from
time to time that I will attach all of these verses to the SD’s.
Jesus
is speaking here, a very severe parable, and so many have concluded that He was
not addressing it to believers, but to unbelievers. However just as it is
something necessary for a parent to deal harshly with His disobedient family,
as the writer of Hebrews reminded his readers, of what the Lord had taught His
people almost a thousand years earlier: “Those
whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives”
(Hebrews 12:6). We will now look at
Proverbs 3:12 as a comparison to what the author of Hebrews said in 12:6 “For
whom the LORD loves He reproves, Even as a father corrects the son in
whom he delights.” I have been teaching
through the book of Hebrews since the 6th of June, 2021, and one of
the many things that I have learned is that the author, and we don’t know who
he is, used a great deal of OT passages to his Jewish readers who would be
familiar with these. Now it is true that
some of the Corinthian believers had become so immoral and unremorseful that
God put them on sickbeds and even caused some of them to die as seen in 1
Corinthians 11:30. Their deaths were
caused by how they were treating the Lord’s Supper, as they were getting drunk,
and at their traditional meals before celebrating the Lord’s Supper were not
only getting drunk but refused to share in the meal with poor believers. We know from our study of Acts that God had
put to death Ananias and Sapphira for lying to the Holy Spirit as seen in Acts
5:1-10. MacArthur writes “The Lord is
sometimes stringent with His errant children because that is sometimes the only
way He can correct their disobedience and protect the purity and holiness of
His church.”
Notice
the first part of verse 23: “For this reason the kingdom of heaven, whose true
citizenship includes only believers. It
is not only that, but He tells the parable for this reason, and that is, as a
direct response to the question that Peter had just asked Him about forgiving a
brother (v.-21), which in turn was a response to His teaching about discipline
within the church (vv. 15-20). We know
that it is obvious that Peter was a believer, especially in light of the fact
that chapter 18 focuses on believers, the Lord’s “little ones who believe in [Him] as seen in verses 6, and we could
also compare that with verse 10. “6 but whoever
causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it is better for
him that a heavy millstone be hung around his neck, and that he be drowned in
the depth of the sea.” “10 "See that
you do not despise one of these little ones, for I say to you, that their
angels in heaven continually behold the face of My Father who is in heaven.” What Jesus
is doing here is illustrating the need for believers to forgive each
other. One more thing I want to remind
you of is that Jesus is speaking to children, and that is we who are believers
are all children, and many times we act like little children as we have been
learning since we have been studying chapter 18.
1/22/2023 8:36 AM
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