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THE FORGIVEN SERVANT
FRIDAY, APRIL 24
Matthew 18:21-35

Memory verse: Matthew 18:26

 

“…Lord, have patience with me,

and I will pay thee all.”

 

THE FORGIVEN SERVANT
 
The forgiven servant must have been elated to have an impossibly heavy financial burden lifted from his frail shoulders. The servant should never forget such a gracious forgiveness immediately after the judgment of being condemned to generations of servanthood for the whole family.
 
But he did forget.
 
Soon after he left the king’s presence, the forgiven servant found one of his fellow servants and demanded payment of one hundred pence (i.e. nearly seventeen weeks or four months of wages) that was owed him. He seized him by the throat and said, “Pay me that thou owest” (Matt 18:28). To look for his fellow servant who owed him money was not wrong. Demanding money from his fellow servant who owed him was also not wrong. However, the seizing by the throat was wrong. His king did not mistreat him. His fellow servant “fell down at his feet, and besought (i.e. begged) him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all” (Matt 18:29). The servant did not worship him as he was not a king, but he did beg for more time to pay, as what he said was exactly the same as what the forgiven servant had said to the king a moment ago. The forgiven servant refused to give him more time to repay the debt but threw him into prison until he paid the debt. In other words, the servant’s time in prison was commensurate with the amount of money owed him! Who else could repay him the debt other than his wife and children?
 
The harsh behaviour of the forgiven servant demonstrated an unforgiving heart and spirit. The forgiven servant had the legal right to throw his fellow servant into prison because the debt owed was real. However, the treatment of his fellow servant ought not to be based on legal right but a compassionate heart. How quickly had he forgotten the enormous debt that was forgiven him by the king!
 
To be forgiven of a debt must result in forgiving others who are indebted to you. To genuinely experience God’s forgiveness, the believer must reciprocate the same forgiveness.
 
THOUGHT: Am I able to forgive all sins committed against me?

PRAYER: Help me, O Father, to forgive as Thou hast forgiven me.

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