Forgiven people forgive

Read Matthew 6:14-15

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Using the Lord’s Prayer as a guide we will always be reminded not only of our need for God’s forgiveness but also that we need to forgive others (12). These two aspects cannot be separated, as Jesus now emphasises in these verses – the only line of the Prayer to which he adds a comment.

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It’s not, of course, that we deserve to be forgiven because we forgive. “It is rather that God forgives only the penitent and one of the chief evidences of true penitence is a forgiving spirit“ J.Stott). God himself does not count our sins against us but buries them “in the depths of the sea” (2 Cor.5:19; Mic.7:19; Ps.103:10). So neither should we keep count of the number of times that we need to forgive someone (Mt.18:21-22).

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Jesus illustrated that with a parable which vividly shows how ungrateful and inappropriate it is for someone who has been forgiven a vast debt to withhold forgiveness for a debt which is trivial in comparison (Mt.18:23-35). When we grasp how huge is the grace given to us by God then surely we can draw on that grace to forgive those who have wronged us. Applying this whenever we pray will set us free from every root of bitterness (Mk.11:25; Heb.12:15; Eph.4:31-32).