Forgive and be Set Free

Am going through the Matthew gospel after finishing John's. Like to share some meditations on Matt 18:21-35, from one of the articles in my Women of Desitny bible....

Our Lord Jesus taught the parable about the ungrateful servant whose master forgave him the debt he owed of 10 thousand talents. Yet, right after he had been pardoned and forgiven the hefty debt that he owed the master, he went direct to harass, threaten and abuse a fellow servant who owed him 10 denarii. He even threw the fellow servant into jail and when his master knew about it, he rebuked the ungrateful and unforgiving servant, called him "wicked" and "delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him".

Does that ungrateful and unforgiving servant represent you or me today? We are the debtors with the huge debt of sin we cannot pay. And Jesus has forgiven us, washed us clean, blot out our transgressions an give us fres starts each time we confess and repent. How then do we not forgive the lesser debts others owe to us?

When Jesus came, He instituted a whole NEW ORDER of relationships among God's people. The "eye for an eye" of the Old Testament law became "love your enemies" in the Sermon on the Mount.

Forgiveness is the mannner of the kingdom! Forgiveness is the kingdom lifestyle! Unforgiveness chokes the body of Christ. Let us pray that our fingerprints are not found on the throats of our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.

Jesus liken our unforgiving attitudes to casting our victims into prison. In harbouring unforgiveness, we put people into impossible situations in which they are helpless to resolve the problems they may have caused. They are helpless because we refuse to engage, to talk things over, to apologise, to agree to disagree, to forgive and agree to move on...Pride often is the spirit that is fuelling the unforgiving spirit...

Jesus described the unforgiving servant who threw his debtor into prison "wicked". "Wicked" means "perverse" or "twisted". If we refuse to forgive after we have been forgiven so much and so freely and so often by our Saviour and Redeemer Lord, we are "TWISTED" - wicked. Unforgiveness perverts the true gospel...

But it doesn't stop there, unforgiveness not only has the effect of casting our "offender" into prison but it also throws us into the "dungeon of torments" If we refuse to forgive, the Father will turn us over to the tormentors of hatred, bitterness, depression, self-pity, guilt, fear etc. We may also suffer physical ailments which often find their source in our emotional problems. When there is unforgiveness, noone gets off scot free...God calls us to unconditional forgiveness - the very means by which we can be freed from torment ourselves. We cannot afford the cost of harbouring unforgiveness!

The writer of this article, Sue Curran, concludes: "If Christians keep one another in the cruel prison of unforgiveness and sufffer torment themselves, then who will reap the harvest of souls waiting for salvation? Who will preach the gospel, bind up the broken hearted, and set the captives free?"

So why don't we just let everyone out of prison and allowour fellow brother, sister and even ourselves be set free? Just like Jesus who cancelled and BLOT OUT all our debts, "should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?" - Matt 18:33

I choose to forgive at least 3 people in my life today, by His Grace and Grace alone. What about you?