Mateus 18

About forgiveness

21 Then Peter approached Him and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him; up to seven times?" 22 Jesus says to him: "Not, I tell you, up to seven, but up to seventy-seven times!*Why 77 and not 490? Well, actually the Greek phrase is ambiguous—it could be either. In either case Jesus is saying that forgiveness should not be limited by number.

23 "Therefore the kingdom of the heavens is like a certain king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 And as he began to settle up, one debtor of ten thousand talents was brought to him. 25 But since he had nothing with which to repay, his lord commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and everything he had, so as to be repaid. 26 So then the servant fell down and did obeisance to him saying, ‘Lord, be patient with me and I will repay you all.’ 27 So the lord of that servant, having compassion, released him and forgave him the loan.

28 "But when that servant went out he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii; and grabbing him he started choking him saying, ‘Pay me back what you owe!’ 29 So his fellow servant fell down at his feet and kept begging him saying, ‘Be patient with me and I will pay you back.’*The picture is that he kept begging all the way to the prison. 30 But he would not; instead he went and threw him into prison until he should pay back what was owed. 31 But when his fellow servants saw what had happened they were really grieved, and they went and reported to their lord everything that had happened. 32 Then summoning him the lord says to him: ‘Malignant servant! I forgave you all that debt because you begged me. 33 Were you also not obligated*Notice the verb ‘obligated’; verse 35 makes clear that this is the way God looks at it—His having forgiven me obligates me to forgive others. Observe that the king reversed his pardon—what might the implications of that be? "My heavenly Father will handle you just like that!" to have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’ 34 So in anger the lord handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that was owed to him.

35 "My heavenly Father will handle you just like that, if each of you does not forgive his brother his trespasses, from the heart."*This is a very strong statement! Perhaps 1% of the Greek manuscripts, of objectively inferior quality, omit "his trespasses" (as in NIV, NASB, LB, TEV, etc.). Note the ‘fellow servant’ and ‘his brother’—presumably declared enemies of Sovereign Jesus are not in view.