SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 2/1/2023 9:47 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-11“The
Example of Forgiveness”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: Matthew
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.’”
We begin this SD by looking at verse 34 “And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the
torturers until he should repay all that was owed him. We can see a great difference in how the king
reacted now as compared to when he first gave this slave his compassion and
forgiveness. Now the king is angry with
this slave because he would not give his fellow slave.
MacArthur writes “Because He is holy
and just, God is always moved with anger at sin, including the sin of His
children. Paul expressed something of
this kind of righteous anger toward unrepentant church members at Corinth when
he asked them if they were going to continue in sin and make him come to them
with a rod (1 Cor. 4:21).
“God has holy indignation whenever a
Christian sins (cf. Ps. 6; Acts 5:1-10).
As chastening for his sin, the unforgiving slave was handed over to the
tortures (not executioners) until he should repay all that was owed him, that
is until he had a change of heart and forgave his offending brother, which is
what the king wanted him to repay. Lord
Herbert once said, ‘He who
cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.’”
In order for me to show everyone,
what I believe is to be the true interpretation of this parable I will have to
continue in providing a lot of quotations from John MacArthur’s
commentary. There are twelve pages in
his commentary to help us better understand this parable, and as mentioned
before this parable is a very important one as it is spoken to our Lord’s
disciples in an answer to the question that Peter asked as to how many times am
I to forgive a person. Granted in this
parable we see that this is mostly about brothers and sisters in the Lord, but
if an unbeliever sins against a believer then by unconditionally forgiven that
person perhaps the Lord will use that to bring this unbeliever to a saving
knowledge of Jesus Christ, thus changing his eternal destination from hell to
heaven. Forgiveness is so very important
for without God’s forgiveness no one would ever enter the Kingdom of God.
“Some commentators contend that the
first slave was reencumbered with the debt he had been forgiven and became
obligated to pay it all back. But that
interpretation hopelessly convolutes the parable by making either the salvation
temporary or the forgiveness conditional on one’s subsequent behavior. Both views are undesirable. Furthermore, the original debt was said to be
unpayable and the man was still without resources, so it would make no sense to
reassign him the debt with the provision that it must be paid in full. It is much better to see the repayment simply
as the proper duty a believer owes the Lord.
In this case, it would mean forgiving your brother any offense.
“God does not chasten His children
out of hatred but out of love. ‘Those
whom the Lord loves He disciplines, and He scourges every son whom He receives’
(Heb. 12:6). He does not chasten them to
drive them away but to bring them back to Himself and to His
righteousness. ‘He disciplines us for
our good, that we may share His holiness’ (v. 10). Every Christian feels the Lord’s scourging at
some time or another, because every Christians deserves His discipline
occasionally. It is natural that God’s ‘discipline
for the moment seems not to be joyful, but sorrowful; yet to those who have
trained by it, afterwards it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness’ (v.
11).
“When believers forget their own
divine forgiveness by God and refuse to extend human forgiveness to fellow
believers, the Lord puts them under such torturers (the word can refer to
inquisitors) as stress, hardship, pressure, or other difficulties until the sin
is confessed and forgiveness is granted.
As James tells us, ‘Judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no
mercy’ (James 2:13).
“That is what Jesus unmistakably
declared to be the parable’s point: So shall My heavenly Father also do to you,
if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart. The unforgiving believer (you) will satisfy
God only by offering his own forgiveness to those who sin against him, most
especially his brother in Christ.”
This may be a poor place to end this
SD but we will continue quoting John MacArthur’s commentary right where we left
off today, in our next SD.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I realize
it is hard to forgive someone of wrong, especially if it is something that hurt
a person badly, but then what did it cost the Father to provide forgiveness for
me.
My Steps of Faith for Today: It is my
desire to learn from the Lord how I am to give forgiveness to those who sin
against me in the proper way.
2/1/2023 10:26
AM
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