I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me
and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do
nothing. – John 15:5
Pray
for God to speak to you through the reading of His word.
Read
Matthew 18:21-35
God’s Forgiveness
is Without Limit
-
The
parable uses an unbelievably large amount of money to prove a point, that the
king was willing to forgive a huge amount.
-
The
amount owed by the slave to the king was more than he could ever hope to earn
in a lifetime, or even a hundred lifetimes!
-
The
king doesn’t just give the slave more time, or lessen what he owes, he forgives
the entire amount then and there!
-
How
does this parable relate to our spiritual lives? How much has God forgiven us? Could we have ever hoped to have “paid back”
what we owed God on our own?
God’s
Forgiveness is Costly…But Not to Us
-
In
the story, the forgiven slave is then given the opportunity to extend
forgiveness to another slave.
-
A
second slave has borrowed a substantial amount of money, about 100 days wages,
from the first slave who had been forgiven by the king.
-
Rather
than show forgiveness, the slave begins choking his fellow slave who owes him
money, telling him he wants all the money he is owed!
-
It
is true that it would have cost a lot for the first slave to forgive the second
slave, almost 1/3 of a year’s salary!
-
And
yet, that first slave had been forgiven 150,000 years’ worth of wages!
-
Forgiveness
seems costly to us, until we place its cost next to what God was willing to pay
to forgive us.
God’s
Forgiveness Seeks to Transform Us
-
Our
experience of God’s forgiveness should transform the way we think an act.
-
Imagine
what people thought about the king, when his slave was out choking people who
owed him money!
-
What
message does it send people about God, if his followers are unwilling to
forgive others?
-
Passage
to Consider: Matthew 6:12-15; 7:1-2; Ephesians 4:32
Praise God for the
ability to experience eternal life, even now!
Pray for unity
among Christ’s followers, so that even when we don’t agree, we will still love
one another and set an example for the world.
Pray for our
ability to fulfill our purpose in the world.
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