Title: Forgiveness Required / Topic: Giving God His Due

Today’s Reading: 1 Chronicles 14; 1 Chronicles 15; Psalm 132; Matthew 18

Scripture: Matthew 18:34-35
34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Observation: This is a harsh passage. Jesus asserts that God will take the role of a torturer for those who do not forgive their brothers. God as torturer? Yikes! (This is a good example of the importance of interpreting a passage in its context.) The man in the parable had just had his multi-million dollar debt wiped out by the king. Then he went out and imprisoned a man who owed him only few bucks, even though the man begged for mercy. You see, the problem here is that the first man, since his large debt had been eliminated, had been given the means to write off this small debt by the king. But he took the king's gift and refused to share it. In fact, he caused others to find fault with both him and the king for his naked and monstrous hypocrisy.

Application: God gives us the grace to forgive others when they wrong us. If we do not forgive others when they wrong us, then we are resisting and refusing God's grace. An unforgiving heart is evidence of a heart devoid of God. But God doesn't just wipe us out. No, he tortures us! Now this may sound mean, but God is trying to get us to make the changes that will result in our ultimate salvation. In the story, the man refused and resisted God's grace, so God allowed him to suffer "until he should pay back all he owed." What does that mean to us? I think it means that since God has forgiven us, if we do not walk in forgivness toward others, God allows and even directs suffering in our lives. Once we settle our debt to God, that is accepting his grace to truly walk in the same forgiveness we have received, then this suffering will cease. (There will always be a certain amount of suffering in this life. But the suffering that is a result of God's judgment will cease once we have repented and reaped the harvest of our misdeeds.)

Bottom line: God is expecting that we will follow through with the grace he gives us. He does not give his grace simply for our ease or comfort. His grace is given to produce Godly character. He expects us to be the Christ-ians that we profess to be.

Prayer: Lord, thank you that you give us everything we need to live this amazing kind of life. And thank you for not giving up on us when we fall short. Help me to pay attention to your corrections in my life so that I can get and stay right with you in every aspect of my life.
This I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.