Religion & Spirituality
Your neighbor’s dog kills your dog or cat … How do you respond? Your dog kills your neighbor’s dog or cat … How do you respond? Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. (Colossians 3:13) What makes forgiveness so hard? Hurt / grief / pain … Justice … (what makes being forgiven so hard?) Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold[h] was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. (Matthew 18:23-27) 10 thousand talents - 10 thousand bags of gold: one talent is 20 years of wages for a laborer In our economy - $10/hour - $80/day - $400/week - $20,800/year - one talent = $416,000 10,000 talents = $4,160,000,000 (over $4 billion) 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins.[i] He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:28-35) 100 denarii - 100 days of wages for laborer - $8,000 Why is forgiveness just? Why is withholding forgiveness so bad? Do I realize how much I have been forgiven? Admit something needs to be forgiven - Admit that I am commanded to forgive Peacemaking - Peacefaking … overlooking an offense vs. peacefaking Return good for evil - do not hold it against them, do not hold the moral high ground, give up righteous victim status Love keeps no record of wrongs --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/roguetabletalks/message