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Copyright © 2012 J. Neely. All rights reserved.
Chapter 31 - Unmerciful Slave
Unmerciful Slave
Matt. 18:21-22
21 Then [tote] came [proserchomai] Peter [Petros] to him [autos] , and said [epo] , Lord [kurios] , how oft [posakis] shall my [mou] brother [adelphos] sin [hamartano] against [eis] me [eme] , and [kai] I forgive [aphiemi] him [autos] ? till [heos] seven times [heptakis] ?
22 Jesus [Iesous] saith [lego] unto him [autos] , I say [lego] not [ou] unto thee [soi] , Until [heos] seven times [heptakis] : but [alla] , Until [heos] seventy times [hebdomekontakis] seven [hepta] . KJV-Interlinear
21 Then Peter came and said to Him, 'Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?' 22 Jesus said to him, 'I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven. NASB
King Louis XII of France said, 'Nothing smells so sweet as the dead body of your enemy.' He was not speaking of war, but of social enemies. People usually have a difficult time forgiving others. We often just want to get even. More often we want the repercussions on others to be far beyond that which they deserve. Burn the toast, and get a divorce. A marriage, which is far more valuable than a piece of toast, is sacrificed for something that is relatively worthless. The superficial hurt often times runs way out of control, and that which is more important, is sacrificed for the gratitude of seeing someone else hurting.
Amos 1:3,6,9,11,13, and Job 33:29 all speak of Gods forgiveness times three, but the fourth transgression means 'that's it.' This scripture was generally interpreted into one of those regulations that the Pharisees like so much, and forgiveness was considered fulfilled if one forgave three times, then forgiveness was not expected beyond that number. This is the typical attitude of immature and petty and self righteous and unbending people.
Children often use this ploy when told to do something. 'Clean up your room.' They pick up certain things but not those things you did not specifically mention. They are immature. They try to slide around their responsibilities and then use a debating argument to justify their actions. 'You didn't say to pick up the socks.' 'You didn't say anything about toys.' 'Which toys?'
'Liberal' thinking people or 'elite' thinking people, use the same approach in life. They use cute little debating techniques to veil their actions. News media people do the same thing. They bate people with questions or leading questions, and then use their answers in twisted reporting. The front appears noble, but the objective is deadly evil.
Peter asks the question, 'Up to seven times?' Sounds noble. Peter offers twice, twice mind you, the going rate for forgiveness. But people who are shallow, immature, and lack Gods wisdom tend to look to other standards to guide them in their actions. Those other standards come from only one source - the sin nature. There are only two opinions in this universe - and only two sources of opinion - God and Satan. Man mimics the thought pattern of Satan.
So man tends to justify his own actions and man sets arbitrary limits called for by those actions. Man is basically evil and evil creates artificial standards. This is why we have prejudice, peer pressure, concepts of classes of people, gossip, bias, and so forth. Arrogance is the foundation of all evil and self righteousness leads people into going just so far, but no further.
Peter suggests that we keep a record of our forgiveness. Superficial people will actually keep track of their 'forgiving' efforts. Christ turns that around and makes the number even higher - 490. A number high enough that no one could possibly keep track of the times of forgiveness for each person who wrongs you. The conclusion? Forgive without limit. There is no such thing as keeping track of how often you are nice to others. You should forgive all the time and without strings. You treat people with 'love' (love one another), an impersonal love, which is an attitude of tolerance. And your attitude should be absent any retaliation or sin of any type. By the way, this is all in a setting of social or civil interaction. War and crime are handled differently.
This should carry over into ones life in other areas. If you do your job, or chores around the house, then simply do them and without any expectation of recognition. Do your work as unto the Lord. Again only petty and shallow people will make an issue of 'themselves,' of 'their' efforts in life. It should be enough that you do whatever it is that you do, and you should do it without complaint and without the expectation of recognition. To do otherwise then you are making yourself, an issue. And in this life 'self' serves as a distraction from the spiritual life.
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