IN this chapter we have seen Jesus first of all correcting the pride and pretensions of the disciples, and telling them they must be humble and trusting like a little child. He tells the disciples that heaven guards and cares for such believers, so that it would be better for anyone who offends such 'little ones' to have never been born, or that they be drowned in the sea. He goes on to tell his disciples that Jesus loves these humble believers so much, that if they are led astray he would not rest until he found them and brought them back into the fold. Then in the verses immediately prior to these verses before us, Jesus has instructed his humble believers (little ones) how to deal in a humble and forgiving spirit with any who persist in seek their harm.

This calls forth a response from Peter. He sees that Jesus is pressing upon him and the other disciples a forgiving spirit which he finds hard to accept. Peter felt that it was alright to forgive, but what if someone you forgive still goes on spreading lies and falsehoods about you. Peter stretches his thinking as far as he could go, and suggests there must be a limit after 7 times if the forgiven person still goes on offending against you. The reply Jesus gives is alarmingly surprising. He tells Peter and all the apostles that there must be no limit to our forgiving.

In order to press home the message here, Jesus goes on to tell the well known parable of the unmerciful servant. This is one of the parables that commence with the words 'the kingdom of heaven is like'. By this phrase Jesus is telling us that the parable describes the character of his kingdom, and the character and behaviour of his subjects. In this parable Jesus is saying that all true members of his kingdom are people who have a forgiving spirit which forgives in an unlimited way.

The king in the parable is plainly describing the behaviour of Jesus himself. Jesus is infinitely forgiving. The debt of the unmerciful servant is absolutely huge, and this is a picture of our debt to God due for our sins. Our sins place us hugely in debt to God, and it is a debt we cannot possible repay. The forgiving of the king is a picture of someone who in forgiving the debt completely, and doing away with it, is taking responsibility for the debt himself. This is precisely what King Jesus has done. We sinners come to him with the debt of our sins which we can't possibly pay. The only future for us is a debtors prison, which in eternal terms means an eternity in hell. King Jesus has taken the debt of our sin upon himself, and paid the debt in full by suffering the debtors prison of eternal hell for us. This he did on the cross.

This servant, after he has been so graciously forgiven, goes from the king and on meeting another servant who owes him a paltry debt of a 100 denarii, refuses to forgive the debt or give time for its repayment, and consigns this man to prison until he has paid the debt.

By this action, this unmerciful servant shows how wrong he is in his heart. He had begged forgiveness from the king for his huge debt, but by this action towards his fellow servant, shows he had no acceptance of his own sin in running up so huge a debt to his king, and shows also that he had no repentance for it. He shows that he is only interested in avoiding the consequences of his debt, and has no sense of gratitude for being forgiven when he is saved from a debtors prison. His heart was all wrong. He had no understanding of how graciously he had been dealt with by his king, nor appreciated what he deserved.

The warning that comes through from this parable is given by Jesus at the end, where he says the king rescinds his forgiveness, and delivers him to torment until he has paid all his debt.

Jesus applies the parable in the last verse. He says, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

What does this mean in eternal terms? It means that if we have an unforgiving spirit, and refuse to forgive others when they offend against us, we can not expect that God's forgiveness will be bestowed on us. This will mean that we will have to answer before God for all our sins, and that we shall be consigned to hell until we have paid the debt.

The fact is that our debt to God for our sins is so huge that it is impossible for us to pay the debt. The unmerciful servant was thinking wishfully when he promised to pay his debt to the king. No amount of time given would be sufficient to pay the debt, and if the debt is not paid before we die there is no hope of paying it after we have died. The fact is that after death our destination is permanent for all eternity, whether it is in hell or heaven, and never then can be altered. This shows the urgency of this whole matter of a forgiving spirit.