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Let’s Be Forgiving People

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"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart." [Matthew 18:35]

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One day, Peter came to Jesus and asked, "Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brothers when they sin against me? Up to seven times?"

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Jesus answered, "I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

And then Jesus started to tell a story.

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A king was settling his accounts with his servants who had lent money from him. A man among them could not pay the king back. He owed the king ten thousand talents. If the money that he owed accounted for today's current money, it would amount to the cost of a huge building.

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The king said in a stern voice to the man who was not able to pay back his amount, "You and your wife and your children and all that you have will be sold to repay the debt." The man should have went to jail since he could not repay the money.

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The servant fell on his knees before the king.

He begged, "Give me more time and I will pay back everything."

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The king took pity on him. So the king gave him favor.

"Alright, you look poor. You do not need to pay my money back. Go out and work hard."

The king canceled the debt and let him go.

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The man was so glad to have received this favor that he did not need to repay his debt. While he was dancing on the way to his home, he met one of his servants. As soon as the man saw him, the man grabbed him and began to choke him.

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His servant was so poor that he could not pay one hundred talents to the man.
One hundred talents is the same value as ten thousand dollars today.
However, this was a small amount compared to his canceled debt by the king.

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His servant fell to his knees and begged him,
"Be patient with me, and I will pay you back. Please give me more time."

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But he refused.
Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.

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When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told the king everything that had happened. The king was very angry. So the king called the man in.

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The king said, "You wicked servant. I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?"

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In anger the king said, "Throw this man into prison until he can pay back all he owed."

The man could not get out of prison until he paid back everything.

Now even though he regretted not forgiving his servant there was no use.

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This story tells us that we believing in Jesus should forgive people many times.
We sin all the time that we should not be allowed into heaven but Jesus died on the cross instead of us so we can go to heaven.

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Unless we forgive our friends who wrong us, we also become the same people like that man.
Jesus hoped by telling his disciples and us this story that we would come to realize that.

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Therefore, we should forgive our friends who make mistakes. If they beg for forgiveness, we have to forgive them thinking about Jesus. Unless we forgive them, we do the same like the above man.