So often I hear people quoting “Do not judge lest ye be judged”. What I find even more important is that we MUST forgive others their sins or our Heavenly Father will not forgive us!
To give context, this comes right after what most of us know as “The Lord’s Prayer” (It starts, Our Father, who art in heaven…)
Matthew 6:14-15 NASB
14 For if you forgive others for their transgressions, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. 15 But if you do not forgive others, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions.
Surely, God asks us to forgive others, but it is not a condition to get the forgiveness from God, since God’s forgiveness is a free gift to us, not something we can gain by our deeds.
Jesus tells us one story about forgivess in Matthew 18. The evil sevant got great forgiveness from his master, but he did not forgivess his fellow servant, and in the end his master got angry for this evil deeds and punished him. In my eyes, the master forgave this servant already with a mercyful heart. This servant should have remembered this great grace and forgive his fellow servant. We also should always remember the greatest mercy and grace we have got from our God and also forgive others . In one words, to forgive others is a fruit of our faith, not a condition to get God’s grace and forgiveness.
Surely, God asks us to forgive others, but it is not a condition to get the forgiveness from God, since God’s forgiveness is a free gift to us, not something we can gain by our deeds.
Jesus tells us one story about forgivess in Matthew 18. The evil sevant got great forgiveness from his master, but he did not forgivess his fellow servant, and in the end his master got angry for this evil deeds and punished him. In my eyes, the master forgave this servant already with a mercyful heart. This servant should have remembered this great grace and forgive his fellow servant. We also should always remember the greatest mercy and grace we have got from our God and also forgive others . In one words, to forgive others is a fruit of our faith, not a condition to get God’s grace and forgiveness.
Jesus did not say “Your heavenly Father will not forgive you unless you forgive others.”
That would be nearly ridiculous since we don’t really know forgiveness outside of God’s great mercy. Like how we love Him because He first loved us. If you read the Mathew 6:14-15 quote you can see it is in a definite and clear order. And it all starts with “Your heavenly Father” so it is to believers. We have already been forgiven, just as was the servant forgiven by the master in the story you were referring to. And yes, in the parable, the servant most certainly should have been so utterly grateful for that forgiveness that it would be nothing to forgive the guy who owed him a mere 10 days wages! And that is what Jesus was trying to make as His point.
So: we’re in agreement I think. It’s a matter of understanding our place with God first, what we owe and can never repay: His astounding mercy. So it comes down to “well, the least I can do is forgive my neighbor for blaring his stereo in the middle of the night seeing as how God has forgiven me all my sins against His Almighty Holiness!” I tell you, it works!
Yes, we should forgive others just like God forgives us. If we do not forgive others, it is a binding in our heart and we cannot enjoy the freedom God gives us.