Church policy and the process of dealing with offense is found in verses 15-17. We first deal with the matter privately, than dually, then corporately. This process sets the stage for the what’s and whys of forgiveness;
Doctrinal authority is listed in verses 18-20. Jesus tells them that they, as followers, have the authority to impose or remove obligations through doctrinal decisions. Jesus gave this promise to Peter in general form in Matthew 16: 17-20 and here Jesus says that “whatever is bound (Greek word “deo”, meaning to “forbid”) on earth is bound in heaven,” and “whatever is loosed (Greek word “luo”, meaning “to permit) on earth is loosed in heaven.”. What is being built here is order for the building of Christ’s church. What is occurring is that Jesus is showing them that new laws will regulate forgiveness;
Peter, who is well schooled in the old Jewish regulations of forgiveness, asks “how often should I forgive?”. It seems we always want the minimum of what is required for us. The Old Jewish teaching was three times as maximum amount for God’s full forgiveness to be given (Amos 1: 3; 2: 6), though there is some sense of 490 times as in the case of Lamech from Genesis 4:24 (it seems that the unforgiveness went down into the following generations of Cain). Verses 19-20 then speak of the important quality of agreement between God’s people (term “agree: is symphony”, with the root being “not discord of voices”). There must be agreement on policy, etc., and if unforgiveness is present, there is no harmony, agreement in spirits. To permit some behavior within the church, but prohibit others is an authority given to the leaders. If, for instance, we do not loose people from their debt, heaven will not open to us;
A story is then included to deal with this subject. Notice that this story is in the book of Matthew. Matthew was a tax collector, so he was accustomed to keeping thorough records and knowing the debts accumulated by individuals. He is the perfect one to record this section. Why? There are monetary weights, records, and accounting procedures taking place;
The story unfolds here:
Verse 23 – the king takes an account of the debts of his servant (the word reckoning is “logon”, which is to “cast up accounts, settle, compare accounts”). Remember that God will settle our accounts one day soon – Romans 14:12. Here, the servant owed the king much – 10,000 talents (94 pounds each weight of talent, adding up to a possible 12 million dollars). This servant could be sold for payment (verse 25). This is what occurred in the Garden of Eden. The soul of man was sold because he could not pay for his offense (Romans 5: 12,18: 6: 23). This is why we
need redemption;
So, this servant worshipped the king and requested patience and mercy (verse 26). The king loosed him and forgave his debt. The word “forgive” means to “lift off” and “loose” means to “break loose”. 1 Corinthians 13: 5b reminds us that true love does not hold account/keep record of our wrongs, so this is a great type of our King of Kings;
What happens next is that the man mirrors his real soul through the life of his own servant (verse 28). The man owes him less than he owed the king (amount is 100 denarii, a measly one days wage). Now, this man could not be sold into slavery because the amount was too small. The servant has no mercy on this man (verse 29). It is amazing that often we react harsher to those who are mirror images of our own selves. Verse 30 shows us that this refusal was not once, but a persistent refusal; it was, therefore, a pattern;
The king heard about this servant’s behavior, for he had messengers who informed him and the king sent the servant to the tormentors (verse 34). This term “tormentors” comes from “basanizo”, meaning “to torture, jail, guard, exact imprisonment”, and this could include heavy labor, meager food, and even torture. Notice that though this servant was forgiven the debt of his own soul, he was still handed over to the tormentors. We can be saved and forgiven of our debt and yet be in bondage if we choose to refuse forgiveness for those who have harmed us, knowingly or unknowingly. England had these prisons and they called them “debtor’s prison”, if you couldn’t not pay your bills. We cannot work enough or do enough to be released from this place. It comes by releasing others.
Here are some signals if you have to forgive someone, or if you are susceptible to it:
You are self-oriented. You see how things affect you only, not how you may affect others;
You exact revenge in your heart. You feel that people need to pay for what they have done to you;
You hold accounts, remember offenses, and store their details in your mind, though your perspective and self-orientation may alter the truth sometimes. You are like the retired Dallas police officer James Leavelle, who was the man in the white hat handcuffed to Lee Harvey Oswald. He recreated the scene over and over again how he prevented a second shot by grabbing Ruby’s gun. Mr. Leavelle accidentally shot the newsman Bob Porter in the arm, sending him to Parkland Hospital, the same place where Kennedy and Oswald had been taken. Re-created scenes and remembering the incidents only do harm to us and our relationships with others;
You have no patience for like-minded people, but you expect others to be patient with your shortcomings;
You may have a long history of refusal to let “by gones be by gones”. It is not just one person you can’t forgive, but it is a pattern of refusal to forgive others.
REMEMBER THIS: When Jesus said 490 times, He might have been saying, “forgive all that had anything to do with this person in his/her past – generational forgiveness”. This would release long-standing feuds. John Walvoord says, “we should be more concerned with how God forgives our wrongs, then how the world or church recognizes our ‘rights’ “.
When Jesus paid for our debts, He went into that torture. It was not a purgatorial cleansing, but a punitive judgment. He was the payment for the debts we owed. Therefore, we can only be handed over to the debtors prison if we refuse to release others.
Finally, keep these words in mind: One of the terms in the word forGIVEness is “GIVE”. It’s a gift, a choice; you have to decide to do it; it is not emotion, but action. If you only try to “forGET”, what you GET is nothing in return; if you “forGiVE, what you GIVE is God-likeness and you get heaven at your disposal.
Jesus gave a blank check from the cross when He said: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” He charged their debt to His own soul and paid the price. Here, in Matthew, Jesus takes forgiveness from being a minimal act of degree and law, to being a monumental choice; a way of life, a matter of the heart. If we walk in forgiveness, our head and hearts will follow and we will not be so legalistic about it, or add up the times we have “forgiven”. We will forgive unto the 7th generation, which is another way of saying “forever”.