«　WEEK 4　DAY 4　»

　　Matt. 18:3 ...Truly I say to you, Unless you turn and become like little children, you shall by no means enter into the kingdom of the heavens.

　　21-22 ...Peter...said to Him, Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times? Jesus said to him, I do not say to you, Up to seven times, but, Up to seventy times seven.

　　Matthew 18 deals with the way we should live and act in the kingdom of the heavens: (1) we should become like little children (vv. 2-4); (2) we should not stumble others or set up any stumbling block (vv. 5-9); (3) we should not despise even a little believer (vv. 10-14); (4) we should hear the church and not be condemned by it (vv. 15-20); and (5) we should forgive a brother without limit (vv. 21-35). All this indicates that to enter into the kingdom of the heavens we must be humble and not despise any believer, but love our brother and forgive our brother. (Matt. 18:1, footnote 1)

　　We all must learn to forgive others, something that none of us enjoys doing. Deep within our heart, we do not want to forgive others.

　　According to the Bible, to forgive is to forget....How difficult it is to forget an offense against us! Without the Lord's mercy and grace, we would remember others' offenses even in eternity. But when God forgives, He forgets. Hebrews 10:17 says, “And their sins and their lawlessnesses I shall by no means remember anymore.”...Our Father in heaven considers us as if we have never sinned, for He has forgiven and forgotten our sins. But when we forgive an offense, we often remind others of it....Genuine forgiveness means that we forget the offense.

　　[In Matthew 18:22] seventy times seven means that we must forgive others an unlimited number of times. There is no need to count or keep a record of the number of times you forgive others. Over and over and over, you need to forgive them.

　　In verses 23 through 35 the Lord gives a parable as an illustration....The settling of accounts...refers to the Lord's dealing with us in this age...[to] cause us to realize how much we owe the Lord and to beg Him to forgive us. According to verse 24, one slave owed [a king] ten thousand talents, that is, about twelve million dollars. It was impossible for the debtor to pay off this debt. This refers to the heavy debt of our failures accumulated after we were saved.

　　After the slave begged the king to be patient with him until he repaid the debt, “the master of that slave was moved with compassion and released him and forgave him the loan” (v. 27). This refers to the forgiveness of our debts in our defeated Christian life for the restoration of our fellowship with the Lord.

　　Verse 28 says, “But that slave went out and found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and he took hold of him and began to choke him, saying, Repay me what you owe.”...The hundred denarii spoken of in this verse is less than a millionth part of ten thousand talents. This refers to a brother's sin against us after we have been saved. How small is any brother's debt to us compared to our debt to the Lord!

　　Nevertheless, we may not be willing to forgive. [In] verses 29 and 30...the Lord is dealing not with sinners, but with believers, with saved ones. He deals with a brother who has been offended, yet who is not willing to forgive.

　　Verse 31 says, “His fellow slaves, seeing what had taken place, were greatly grieved and came and explained fully to their master all that had taken place.” If we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, it will grieve the other brothers, and they may bring this matter to the Lord.

　　Verse 34...[indicates that] if we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, we shall be disciplined by the Lord until we forgive him from the heart, that is, until we have paid everything we owe,...[which] implies that if we do not forgive a brother from our heart today, we shall not be allowed to enter into the kingdom in the coming age. (Life-study of Matthew, pp. 604, 616-618)

　　Further Reading: Life-study of Matthew, msgs. 51-52