The parable of The Unforgiving Servant is found only in Matthew 18:23-35. This is what it says.
“Therefore the kingdom of heaven is like a king who arranged to examine the accounts of those who handled his affairs. And as he began this accounting, one was brought to him who owed 10,000 talents. And because the man had no way to repay the debt, the master ordered him to be sold into slavery, along with his wife and children and everything he owned, in order to recover at least some of that great debt. Then the man fell to his knees and begged, have mercy on me and I will pay back every penny! And the king was moved with compassion and let him go, forgiving the debt altogether. But that same man, as soon as he left, went out and found another man who owed him a hundred denarii, grabbed him by the throat and angrily demanded payment. This man fell down and begged earnestly, give me time and I’ll pay you what I owe! But he wouldn’t listen and had the man thrown into the debtor’s prison until someone else paid his debt. Now, when others saw what had happened, they were troubled and went to tell the king. Then the king called the first man back and said to him, you’re a wicked and contemptible man. I forgave that great debt of yours because you begged me to. Should you not have had mercy on this other man to forgive him of this small debt? And in anger the king turned him over to the jailers till he paid all that he owed. My heavenly Father will deal with every one of you in this same way, if you do not freely forgive your brother out of a sincere heart.”
Now for the application, the human king is God the Father and those who handled His affairs are believers. The one in the parable who had the debt he was unable to pay illustrates all of us who are wise enough to understand that we, too, have a debt to God impossible to repay. Our only hope is to be forgiven that great debt. And in His gracious mercy, God is willing to forgive. However, as Jesus has already told us (Matthew 6:12, 14-15), and as He illustrates in this parable, there is a catch. The Father’s willingness to forgive our sin against Him is always predicated on our own willingness to forgive those who sin against us. In order to walk with God certain realities are required. You can fake it and fool some of the people some of the time. But you can’t fool God.
I talked about this reality at length in the paper “The Greatest Commandment”. And in some of the other papers I point out the difference between religious pretense (or morality) and spiritual reality. The realities God requires always demand we go against our nature to prove our submission and loyalty to Him. And here’s something to consider, especially for those who worry about whether or not there’s been any change in their lives (knowing that it’s God’s purpose to conform us to the image of His Son and that means we have to change).
You need only look in your life for some of those realities that demand you go against your nature. The reality here is forgiveness. Do you harbor resentment against those who may have hurt you? Do you plot revenge against those who have opposed you in some way? Do you justify yourself with the delusion that it’s up to you to decide to forgive or not? Or is there an understanding in your spirit, a clear voice that comes through loud and clear, telling you there is no choice, you must forgive.
The realities I’m talking about are simply opportunities God gives us to prove we care more about being submitted and obedient to Him than we do about catering to our flesh. And so, the reality is that you forgive, no restrictions and no limitations. Does this mean you easily forgive, every time? Not necessarily. You might struggle with it sometimes. But what do you do in the end, after the struggle. You forgive.
In the paper “Avoiding the Hogs and Dogs Disease – Part Two” I talk about several realities. And every one of them is specifically designed by God to make us go against our nature. Why? I’ll explain it again. Not to prove to God that we can, He already knows if we can or not. It’s to give us the opportunity on a regular basis to prove to ourselves that we can make the conscious decision to go against our nature and follow through with that decision by doing what God wants us to do. That’s how we change. We reject our nature and partake of His. We forsake who we are and embrace Who He is.
Our flesh will never commit suicide; it has to be killed. So God continually orchestrates the circumstances we need to respond to Him and demonstrate our loyalty to His character and nature by doing things our flesh doesn’t want to do. This makes our flesh weaker and our spirit stronger. There are those who want to ignore what I think is a very clear reality. God requires us to give on a regular basis to acknowledge His ownership of all that we have and give us the continual opportunity to deny our flesh in the areas of self-preservation and materialism. He wants us to give to prove that we trust in Him and in the provision He has for us. And, He wants us to give to prove that eternal, spiritual issues are more important to us than selfish materialism.
Those who make excuses in this area (and in the light of God’s purpose and His promises, they’re feeble excuses at best) follow the self-determined ways of the world, develop a spiritual blindness that keeps them from understanding spiritual issues and applying spiritual principles as they should. The result is that they get sucked deeper and deeper into the self-preservation and materialism of the world, making it more and more difficult for them to get back to a place of obedience. Why? Because giving is a reality that God requires, and there are consequences for ignoring it. Now I’ve gone to preaching, or meddling, depending on your view.
But I can’t help it. Because these realities are what separate the religious, pretentious crowd, who think it’s up to them to decide what they do and what they don’t do, from true believers who trust God and submit to what He requires. This is a very simple issue. God makes it black or white, yes or no, you either do it or you don’t; there’s no gray, in-between, “it’s up to you” areas. It’s the same thing with discipline and correction or suffering. You can ignore God, determine your own course and not experience the discipline and correction of God. And there are many, obviously, who think it’s a good thing to avoid such unpleasantness. But what’s the reality? If you don’t submit to and receive God’s discipline and correction, it’s because you’re not His child (Hebrews 12:5-8). You want to avoid suffering? OK, exercise your options and try to insulate yourself from anything God may try to bring your way to test you. God will allow you to exercise your free will. But then you’ll suffer the consequences of your avoidance of this reality in God; if you refuse to share in His sufferings, you’ll not share in His glory (I Peter 4:12-13). Those who deliberately disregard what God requires are playing a dangerous game of self-delusion (Galatians 6:7-8).
So, let’s get back to the parable. Jesus lets Peter and the rest of the disciples know that forgiveness is not a choice to be made or something that has its limitations. It’s required. The man in the story received forgiveness, because he asked for it. But he didn’t do what the master required, so, in his failure, he lost the forgiveness he had been granted. The larger part of the religious crowd wants very much to believe that once you receive something from God, it becomes a permanent possession and can never be lost. But, as Jesus clearly illustrates with this parable, only those who meet God’s conditions are able to possess His promises.