Jan 25, 2022
How often should we forgive others? That's our topic for today.
I'm Mike Henry with the Follower of One Podcast. Thanks for joining us today. As we talk about how we forgive others, I want to read from Matthew chapter 18 verses 23 through 27.
"For this reason, the kingdom of heaven can be compared to a king
who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to
settle accounts, one who owed 10,000 talents was brought before
him. Since he did not have the money to pay it back, his master
commanded that he, his wife, his children, and everything he had be
sold to pay the debt. At this, the servant fell face down before
him and said, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.'
Then the master of that servant had compassion, released him, and
forgave him the loan."
And that's from the Christian Standard Bible. I want to talk for a
moment about 10,000 talents. This man had owed the king 10,000
talents. There are varying degrees of understanding with regard to
talent, but often a talent of gold or silver was the equivalent to
multiple years' wages.
It was a great amount of money. Imagine 75 pounds of gold or 75
pounds of silver. This was more money than any person could have
spent almost in a lifetime. And there were 10,000 of them. And so
this, this is an unbelievable amount of money and I believe Jesus
is making this point to make an exaggeration. He's speaking
directly to Peter and to others about how many times we should
forgive others. And he makes this illustration. Can you imagine
that you've been forgiven 10,000 lifetime's worth of income? That's
an awful lot of money. And if we've been forgiven that much, then
what should we forgive? This story goes on.
And this person after being forgiven, that amount of money would
not forgive someone who owed him a hundred days' wages. So this
massive comparison is taking place. And as a result, we find out
further in the story that the king ends up not forgiving this man,
his debt, but having him thrown in prison.
It's an amazing story because what Jesus is saying is we've been
each forgiven 10,000 lifetime's worth of money. And we therefore
should go forgive everyone else. So what's the number? How often
should we forgive? It's way more than I tend to forgive. I don't
know about you, but I don't forgive nearly enough and I don't
forgive nearly as freely as I should.
And my challenge for us today is to be forgivers. Let's forgive
like we've been forgiven 10,000 lifetimes of income. Imagine
finding out one day that you owe a debt that you could never repay.
That's exactly what happens to us when we become Christians. We've
already created enough debt through our sin and our selfish
lifestyle.
We've already been forgiven so much debt by Jesus at the moment
that he saves us that there's nothing that we can't forgive someone
else. And that's an interesting challenge. And I believe only Jesus
can make that command of us because of what he has forgiven us.
So today I want to challenge us as marketplace Christians. Let's
forgive. Look for opportunities to forgive others. Look for a way
to give away a little more, to forgive a little better. As we're
praying for people today, and as we're trying to appreciate our
coworkers on our Marketplace Mission Trip, let's forgive
others.
It's one of the ways that we show appreciation for others - that we
freely forgive. Thanks for being a marketplace minister. And thank
you for considering how your faith shows up in the world every day.
Join a community of us who are trying to bring our faith with us
everywhere we go. And we connect together at https://followerofone.org.
You can join our online community at https://community.followerofone.org.
Thanks very much.