Dealing with people is hard. We will eventually be offended, hurt and feel all the emotions of being sinned against.

And this will come from those we love—family, friends, coworkers and fellow believers.

But we can’t read Matthew 18:21-35 and think we have any loophole to hold on to unforgiveness.

The debtor in this passage owed a debt that could not be paid. Some suggest this amount in current dollars to be between 12 million to 1 billion dollars. But the master had compassion on the servant’s request for forgiveness and forgave the debt entirely.

But the servant then goes on to have no pity on those who owed him and refuses to forgive their debts.

The master is enraged and delivers him to be tortured in debtors prison for his refusal to forgive others.

Jesus says, “So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.” (Matt 18:35).

Unforgiveness keeps US in prison.

We are the ones tortured by our own thoughts while our offenders move on.

If we don’t let it go, it eats us up from the inside out and often turns into bitterness and depression.

When we forgive the other person, we aren’t saying what they did was okay. They really might owe us a debt for their actions that they could never repay—just like we owe Christ for the debt of our sin that he forgave.

And just like every other form of obedience as a Christ follower, we are to follow Him in this if we want freedom.

And honestly, the only way I’ve found to do this is to begin to pray for the other person.

Does this mean I am to work myself silly to maintain a relationship with someone who continues to hurt me? Not necessarily. I do believe God sometimes gives us permission to walk away. But He is very clear that we never have permission to not forgive.

But how do we do walk all this out ? Well, we need to ask Jesus what His disciples asked of Him. (More on that next week. Join me on this page or sign up for the blog at the link below)

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