Talk Together
Family conversations with God’s Word.
What’s something you love to receive but struggle to give? Maybe a favorite chocolate bar or toy? As humans, forgiveness is something we love to receive but struggle to give. The Bible tells Christians to forgive as Christ forgave us!
One time, one of Jesus’s disciples, Peter, asked how many times he should forgive someone. Peter thought forgiving someone seven times would be enough. To Peter’s surprise, Jesus tells him he should forgive seventy times seven times!
That’s a lot of forgiveness! By giving Peter that high number, Jesus showed him – and us – there is no limit to how much we should forgive.
Then, Jesus shared a story with Peter about a servant who owed his master a great debt. Let’s read what happened in Matthew chapter 18, verses 21-27.
ESV
Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servant fell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt.”
After experiencing such forgiveness, you would think the servant would want to forgive too. He didn’t. Instead, he left that meeting, found a person who owed him money and demanded he pay him! When the other man couldn’t repay the servant, the servant had him put in jail!
Later, when the master found out the servant he forgave could not forgive others, he became angry. He had the servant put in jail until the servant could pay him back.
Jesus offers complete forgiveness to everyone. When we choose to forgive, we share the love of Jesus with another person. Forgiveness feels great to receive but can be hard to give. Thankfully, we can ask Jesus for His strength to do what’s right. He will help us to forgive others just like He forgives us.