Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants.
The kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who calls his servants to settle accounts with them. The king is God, even Christ, calling people to account for what they owe Him. Humanity owes Him an immense debt of sin that it cannot repay, but when the sinner pleads for compassion He freely cancels the whole debt in mercy at infinite cost through Christ's blood. Those so forgiven must from the heart forgive others without limit, showing the same tenderness, patience, and mercy in every relationship. Refusing mercy after receiving such mercy reveals a hard ungrateful heart, and brings judgment with the pardon revoked.
Parable Setting and Symbols
The verse opens a parable in which the kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who calls his servants to account and begins to settle accounts with them. It presents that reckoning as the setting for the lesson that forgiveness must not be limited by a set number of offenses and that those forgiven must forgive others and conduct their dealings in love. The king in the story represents God, who calls people to account for what they owe Him, and specifically Christ in His compassionate dealing with sinners.
The servants are those entrusted with the king's governmental affairs and with great property placed under their care. The first servant stands in a high position of trust, but the review of the accounts exposes his unfaithfulness. That investigation and its financial details complete the story and set up the teaching about the grounds for forgiveness and the danger of refusing to forgive, yet they do not each carry a separate spiritual meaning. Debts and property in the accounting represent spiritual realities and how people should treat one another.
The reckoning reveals that the first servant owes ten thousand talents, worth at least fifteen million dollars by the lowest estimate, an enormous debt he cannot repay. He faces loss of family and possessions until he pleads for mercy, when the king is moved with compassion, releases him, and cancels the whole debt. The accounting applies personally through the question of how much one owes the Lord, a debt that cannot be computed in light of Christ's self-denial, suffering, and death to secure salvation.
God's Forgiving Mercy
The reckoning opens with a ruler moved by pity to release his servant and wipe out the entire vast obligation, and in that release is seen God's own dealing with sinners, a pardon that is free and supernatural and divine, covering all sin and resting wholly on mercy. The accounting itself exposes the setting for that lesson, for the servant is found with an enormous liability he cannot discharge, and the king's compassion in forgiving it shows the ground on which forgiveness stands.
The debt is the debt of sin owed to God, great beyond human payment, and those who owe it stand condemned by the broken law with nothing to repay, nothing to offer as an equivalent, and no power to save themselves. Yet when the sinner pleads for compassion, God in mercy cancels that debt. That cancellation was secured at infinite price and cost, because Christ took humanity and gave His life for the unjust, and He now freely offers pardon purchased by His blood, since men and women are His purchased possession.
In this way Jesus has pitied and forgiven great sins and transgressions to redeem sinners from hopeless despair. That compassionate forgiveness forms the setting for all that follows about forgiving others.
Forgiven Must Forgive
Those who have been forgiven must forgive others from the heart, showing the same tenderness, forbearance, patience, compassion, mercy and love in church life, in business, and in every relationship. The parable contrasts divine compassion toward those in error with human harshness, for a servant forgiven an immense debt refused compassion to a fellow servant who owed far less, and God does not approve treating others harshly after receiving mercy. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn erring brethren of like passions, is unbecoming and stands rebuked, springing from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy rather than from grateful hearts that constantly need grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment. Forgiveness must not be limited by a set number of offenses but must be extended without limit, and believers must never grow weary of forgiving.
The vastly greater debt owed to the king than the small sum owed by the fellow servant shows how greatly human sin against God exceeds the wrongs others do to us, making harshness toward a fellow servant inexcusable after receiving such mercy. The forgiven servant is tested when a fellow servant owes him a small sum, and though he should have shown the same mercy he received and shown others the compassion he himself desires and has received, he instead demands payment and refuses patience. God's mercy should soften its recipients and lead them to show mercy, patience and forgiveness to others, for He has forgiven great sins and transgressions at infinite price to redeem from hopeless despair. Refusing to forgive reveals a hard and ungrateful heart unchanged by God's forgiveness, marked by harshness, resentment, revenge, oppression and self-exaltation rather than humility and gratitude.
God deals with people as they deal with their brethren and according to the spirit they show toward erring fellow believers, not according to their own opinion of themselves or self-confidence. Receiving abundant grace should make a person humble and grateful, not oppressive or self-exalting, and harshness, resentment and revenge toward one who has done wrong are contrary to divine mercy and reveal a hard heart. Those who freely receive forgiveness should freely give and love one another, freely forgiving another's debt as they hope the Lord will forgive their own debt to God. The king's mercy is the ground for showing compassion to fellow sinners, since humanity stands condemned by the broken law and cannot save itself, and releasing a brother from a debt rather than pressing claims too severely follows God's requirements and brings His blessing and favor.
Judgment on the Unforgiving
Matthew 18:23 presents the kingdom of heaven as a king taking account of his servants, calling people to account for the great debt of sin they owe to God. That account shows God cancelling the immense debt in mercy when the sinner pleads for compassion, and those so forgiven must forgive others from the heart in church life, in business, and in every relationship. Refusing mercy to others after being forgiven brings judgment, for the servant whose great debt was forgiven but who showed no mercy to a fellow servant had his pardon revoked. Such refusal shows the heart has not been changed by God's forgiveness, and the king's forgiveness of the enormous debt makes harshness toward a fellow servant inexcusable. Forgiveness so received must therefore be extended without limit.
Those who judge others without mercy will themselves face justice without mercy, answering to God for how they treat others. People will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife, and should show others the compassion they themselves desire and have received. Christ's instructions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother are to be followed to that end. This accounting follows a warning against judging others by a measure one would not accept for oneself.
The parable of the relentless servant exposes the hardhearted, unsympathetic husband who fails his accountability as houseband and priest of the family to bind the family together and bear responsibility. God will call such a man to account and repay him for faultfinding, for expressing the natural heart, for blaming his wife and brethren for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, and for withholding the pity, patience, and longsuffering kindness shown to him in his many errors and sins. Unless he falls upon the Rock and is broken all to pieces, unless his hard heart is melted and softened, unless he dies to self and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, he cannot be saved. The spirit he shows at home and in the church could not enter heaven.
Matthew Eighteen Instruction
Matthew 18 is the Saviour's instruction for dealing with church members who have gone wrong, and this verse belongs to that instruction which is to be followed carefully. It is part of the practical lesson to be hung in the chambers of the mind, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. The chapter must be studied carefully and is to be studied and printed and established in by grace. It teaches the only terms for securing eternal life, loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self, and requires practicing the principles Christ laid down.
That instruction governs dealing with those who fall into error and sin and those in fault, through an organized process in which members are accountable to the church. It is applied to correcting wrongdoing in the church and seeking to save the person who is in danger of being ruined by sin. It gives Christ's direction for forgiving a brother and dealing with those in fault, and Christ's instructions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother should be followed. People will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife.
The chapter gives the principles upon which to act in all cases and under all circumstances and in every circumstance. Christ's followers must humble themselves like little children and humble themselves before God, avoid causing believers to stumble, and learn and practice Christ's lessons in their dealings with one another. They are to turn their minds from self toward sympathy and love for others and make personal efforts for those outside Christ. Following Jesus requires thorough conversion, singleness of purpose, and purity of motive. There is to be no striving for supremacy, and no despising or lording it over God's people, for despising or lording it over God's people closes the gates of heaven. Greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is not position, outward splendor, or authority, but inward excellence and spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion, and entering the kingdom requires putting Christ's lesson into practice.
The chapter's lessons on sowing and reaping teach that people reap what they sow. Its instruction gives relief and courage and hope. It calls for taking the case of a brother to the Lord Jesus in prayer, believing that He hears, confessing sins and repenting and walking humbly with God to find pardon, and acting as one whom the Lord has corrected in order to purify and save. The kingdom is likened to a King who takes account of His servants with a decision God alone can exercise. God thereby enters into matters of dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, strife to be highly esteemed by men, criticism and faultfinding, which is expressly the work of the devil.
That devilish work began in the heavenly courts where Satan, admired for beauty and loveliness, deceived angels by suggesting that he could do wonderful things if not hampered by the law of Jehovah and that a change in the government of God would advantage the heavenly family. He won assent as if in harmony with God, putting his own thoughts in minds, repeating them to the highest Authority as the sentiments of others, and covering his tracks while sowing suspicion and distrust of God and distrust of one another. Disaffection and rebellion broke out without definable origin. For the good of the loyal and true, the disloyal with the instigator of evil were expelled from heaven.
Church and Daily Application
The lesson sets the only terms for securing eternal life, loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self, and it must be hung in the chambers of the mind, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. Each person is to take his own soul-garden under stewardship, removing every weed and tare Satan has sown during neglect instead of being occupied finding weeds in a neighbor's garden. Thoughts are to be purified by bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ, so that words are not scattered recklessly without careful consideration of their lodgment and result.
The chapter is a message calling those who bear Christ's name to cooperate with Him in real, genuine union in ministerial service, uniting with angels to help needy souls in the valley of decision and bring men to repentance. Church members who have had light must be converted and become Christians in practice by obeying the truth instead of annoying and perplexing those weak in the faith, with each individual examining what he is doing while Christ and His angels are at work. Christ's work is to be carried out according to the instruction given there, with self kept under the control of the great Teacher, and practicing that instruction brings more of God's wisdom and saves time and strength.
The instruction is the standard for how believers treat one another, for people will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife, and Christ's directions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother are to be followed. Criticizing and condemning a fellow servant rather than seeking to uplift him violates that instruction and does not honor God. God does not desire any man to draw apart from his brethren, and lack of love is sure evidence that Christ is not dwelling in the heart. That lack includes the strong desire to hinder and repress one who is doing a good work, one accusing another, one worker wanting another worker in higher office removed, and the spirit of accusation and of thinking and speaking evil everywhere, while plans devised to separate brethren have nothing to do with the Lord but are the enemy's devices that must be met and condemned, with believers giving the enemy no place by refusing to think or speak evil.
Being severe and exacting toward erring brethren of like passions, ready to criticize, censure, and condemn, is unbecoming and out of place and stands rebuked, springing from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Those who constantly need grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment must exercise the same tenderness, forbearance, patience, compassion, and love with grateful hearts toward others, cultivating meekness and humility rather than quickness to condemn. Harshness, lack of courtesy, and a severe dictatorial manner toward God's children are forbidden, and transformation in spirit from self-superiority and a hard, cruel spirit is required, for without it a person wounds and bruises souls, causes brethren to lose all confidence, and cannot handle sacred things or represent Jesus Christ.
Those in positions of responsibility must not rule as kings or act in an overbearing way lording it over others, but should give wise counsel that protects and strengthens God's people, act with wisdom, reject selfishness, and set an example others can safely follow. The chapter gives educating lessons of high and holy principles for daily practical life, especially for those in places of responsibility in the publishing work in educating and training youth. It requires first reforming self and then working under the one head Christ Jesus with perfect love and compassion, acting as brethren as branches in the same vine, showing compassion, tenderness and love, and remembering in all training that the youth are the property of Jesus Christ.
The verse begins the lesson to all professed Christians against self-sufficiency and strife for supremacy. Laying plans in self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity when not especially requested, taking satisfaction in seeing deficiencies in brethren, letting self interpose between the soul and God, fancying one's discernment and judgment superior while failing to discern one's own spirit, and hindering the work by allowing Satan to use words that ought to build up the Redeemer's kingdom grieve the Spirit of the Saviour. Inward concealed and manifest strife to be first turns men who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards instead of advances the work, and keeps the Lord from manifesting His power and grace until all this unsanctified element is cleansed from the soul temple. The parable applies to forgiving and ceasing to hold brethren strictly accountable for perceived wrongs, as in Daniel's need to forgive, and to freely forgiving another person's debt as one hopes the Lord will forgive his own debt to God, releasing a brother from a debt rather than pressing claims too severely, which follows God's requirements and brings His blessing and favor.
The kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who calls his servants to settle accounts with them. The king is God, even Christ, calling people to account for what they owe Him. Humanity owes Him an immense debt of sin that it cannot repay, but when the sinner pleads for compassion He freely cancels the whole debt in mercy at infinite cost through Christ's blood. Those so forgiven must from the heart forgive others without limit, showing the same tenderness, patience, and mercy in every relationship. Refusing mercy after receiving such mercy reveals a hard ungrateful heart, and brings judgment with the pardon revoked.
Parable Setting and Symbols
The verse opens a parable in which the kingdom of heaven is compared to a king who calls his servants to account and begins to settle accounts with them. It presents that reckoning as the setting for the lesson that forgiveness must not be limited by a set number of offenses and that those forgiven must forgive others and conduct their dealings in love. The king in the story represents God, who calls people to account for what they owe Him, and specifically Christ in His compassionate dealing with sinners.
The servants are those entrusted with the king's governmental affairs and with great property placed under their care. The first servant stands in a high position of trust, but the review of the accounts exposes his unfaithfulness. That investigation and its financial details complete the story and set up the teaching about the grounds for forgiveness and the danger of refusing to forgive, yet they do not each carry a separate spiritual meaning. Debts and property in the accounting represent spiritual realities and how people should treat one another.
The reckoning reveals that the first servant owes ten thousand talents, worth at least fifteen million dollars by the lowest estimate, an enormous debt he cannot repay. He faces loss of family and possessions until he pleads for mercy, when the king is moved with compassion, releases him, and cancels the whole debt. The accounting applies personally through the question of how much one owes the Lord, a debt that cannot be computed in light of Christ's self-denial, suffering, and death to secure salvation.
God's Forgiving Mercy
The reckoning opens with a ruler moved by pity to release his servant and wipe out the entire vast obligation, and in that release is seen God's own dealing with sinners, a pardon that is free and supernatural and divine, covering all sin and resting wholly on mercy. The accounting itself exposes the setting for that lesson, for the servant is found with an enormous liability he cannot discharge, and the king's compassion in forgiving it shows the ground on which forgiveness stands.
The debt is the debt of sin owed to God, great beyond human payment, and those who owe it stand condemned by the broken law with nothing to repay, nothing to offer as an equivalent, and no power to save themselves. Yet when the sinner pleads for compassion, God in mercy cancels that debt. That cancellation was secured at infinite price and cost, because Christ took humanity and gave His life for the unjust, and He now freely offers pardon purchased by His blood, since men and women are His purchased possession.
In this way Jesus has pitied and forgiven great sins and transgressions to redeem sinners from hopeless despair. That compassionate forgiveness forms the setting for all that follows about forgiving others.
Forgiven Must Forgive
Those who have been forgiven must forgive others from the heart, showing the same tenderness, forbearance, patience, compassion, mercy and love in church life, in business, and in every relationship. The parable contrasts divine compassion toward those in error with human harshness, for a servant forgiven an immense debt refused compassion to a fellow servant who owed far less, and God does not approve treating others harshly after receiving mercy. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn erring brethren of like passions, is unbecoming and stands rebuked, springing from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy rather than from grateful hearts that constantly need grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment. Forgiveness must not be limited by a set number of offenses but must be extended without limit, and believers must never grow weary of forgiving.
The vastly greater debt owed to the king than the small sum owed by the fellow servant shows how greatly human sin against God exceeds the wrongs others do to us, making harshness toward a fellow servant inexcusable after receiving such mercy. The forgiven servant is tested when a fellow servant owes him a small sum, and though he should have shown the same mercy he received and shown others the compassion he himself desires and has received, he instead demands payment and refuses patience. God's mercy should soften its recipients and lead them to show mercy, patience and forgiveness to others, for He has forgiven great sins and transgressions at infinite price to redeem from hopeless despair. Refusing to forgive reveals a hard and ungrateful heart unchanged by God's forgiveness, marked by harshness, resentment, revenge, oppression and self-exaltation rather than humility and gratitude.
God deals with people as they deal with their brethren and according to the spirit they show toward erring fellow believers, not according to their own opinion of themselves or self-confidence. Receiving abundant grace should make a person humble and grateful, not oppressive or self-exalting, and harshness, resentment and revenge toward one who has done wrong are contrary to divine mercy and reveal a hard heart. Those who freely receive forgiveness should freely give and love one another, freely forgiving another's debt as they hope the Lord will forgive their own debt to God. The king's mercy is the ground for showing compassion to fellow sinners, since humanity stands condemned by the broken law and cannot save itself, and releasing a brother from a debt rather than pressing claims too severely follows God's requirements and brings His blessing and favor.
Judgment on the Unforgiving
Matthew 18:23 presents the kingdom of heaven as a king taking account of his servants, calling people to account for the great debt of sin they owe to God. That account shows God cancelling the immense debt in mercy when the sinner pleads for compassion, and those so forgiven must forgive others from the heart in church life, in business, and in every relationship. Refusing mercy to others after being forgiven brings judgment, for the servant whose great debt was forgiven but who showed no mercy to a fellow servant had his pardon revoked. Such refusal shows the heart has not been changed by God's forgiveness, and the king's forgiveness of the enormous debt makes harshness toward a fellow servant inexcusable. Forgiveness so received must therefore be extended without limit.
Those who judge others without mercy will themselves face justice without mercy, answering to God for how they treat others. People will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife, and should show others the compassion they themselves desire and have received. Christ's instructions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother are to be followed to that end. This accounting follows a warning against judging others by a measure one would not accept for oneself.
The parable of the relentless servant exposes the hardhearted, unsympathetic husband who fails his accountability as houseband and priest of the family to bind the family together and bear responsibility. God will call such a man to account and repay him for faultfinding, for expressing the natural heart, for blaming his wife and brethren for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, and for withholding the pity, patience, and longsuffering kindness shown to him in his many errors and sins. Unless he falls upon the Rock and is broken all to pieces, unless his hard heart is melted and softened, unless he dies to self and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, he cannot be saved. The spirit he shows at home and in the church could not enter heaven.
Matthew Eighteen Instruction
Matthew 18 is the Saviour's instruction for dealing with church members who have gone wrong, and this verse belongs to that instruction which is to be followed carefully. It is part of the practical lesson to be hung in the chambers of the mind, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. The chapter must be studied carefully and is to be studied and printed and established in by grace. It teaches the only terms for securing eternal life, loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self, and requires practicing the principles Christ laid down.
That instruction governs dealing with those who fall into error and sin and those in fault, through an organized process in which members are accountable to the church. It is applied to correcting wrongdoing in the church and seeking to save the person who is in danger of being ruined by sin. It gives Christ's direction for forgiving a brother and dealing with those in fault, and Christ's instructions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother should be followed. People will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife.
The chapter gives the principles upon which to act in all cases and under all circumstances and in every circumstance. Christ's followers must humble themselves like little children and humble themselves before God, avoid causing believers to stumble, and learn and practice Christ's lessons in their dealings with one another. They are to turn their minds from self toward sympathy and love for others and make personal efforts for those outside Christ. Following Jesus requires thorough conversion, singleness of purpose, and purity of motive. There is to be no striving for supremacy, and no despising or lording it over God's people, for despising or lording it over God's people closes the gates of heaven. Greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is not position, outward splendor, or authority, but inward excellence and spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion, and entering the kingdom requires putting Christ's lesson into practice.
The chapter's lessons on sowing and reaping teach that people reap what they sow. Its instruction gives relief and courage and hope. It calls for taking the case of a brother to the Lord Jesus in prayer, believing that He hears, confessing sins and repenting and walking humbly with God to find pardon, and acting as one whom the Lord has corrected in order to purify and save. The kingdom is likened to a King who takes account of His servants with a decision God alone can exercise. God thereby enters into matters of dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, strife to be highly esteemed by men, criticism and faultfinding, which is expressly the work of the devil.
That devilish work began in the heavenly courts where Satan, admired for beauty and loveliness, deceived angels by suggesting that he could do wonderful things if not hampered by the law of Jehovah and that a change in the government of God would advantage the heavenly family. He won assent as if in harmony with God, putting his own thoughts in minds, repeating them to the highest Authority as the sentiments of others, and covering his tracks while sowing suspicion and distrust of God and distrust of one another. Disaffection and rebellion broke out without definable origin. For the good of the loyal and true, the disloyal with the instigator of evil were expelled from heaven.
Church and Daily Application
The lesson sets the only terms for securing eternal life, loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self, and it must be hung in the chambers of the mind, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. Each person is to take his own soul-garden under stewardship, removing every weed and tare Satan has sown during neglect instead of being occupied finding weeds in a neighbor's garden. Thoughts are to be purified by bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ, so that words are not scattered recklessly without careful consideration of their lodgment and result.
The chapter is a message calling those who bear Christ's name to cooperate with Him in real, genuine union in ministerial service, uniting with angels to help needy souls in the valley of decision and bring men to repentance. Church members who have had light must be converted and become Christians in practice by obeying the truth instead of annoying and perplexing those weak in the faith, with each individual examining what he is doing while Christ and His angels are at work. Christ's work is to be carried out according to the instruction given there, with self kept under the control of the great Teacher, and practicing that instruction brings more of God's wisdom and saves time and strength.
The instruction is the standard for how believers treat one another, for people will answer for unkind words and harsh spirits that cause strife, and Christ's directions for dealing with sin and restoring a brother are to be followed. Criticizing and condemning a fellow servant rather than seeking to uplift him violates that instruction and does not honor God. God does not desire any man to draw apart from his brethren, and lack of love is sure evidence that Christ is not dwelling in the heart. That lack includes the strong desire to hinder and repress one who is doing a good work, one accusing another, one worker wanting another worker in higher office removed, and the spirit of accusation and of thinking and speaking evil everywhere, while plans devised to separate brethren have nothing to do with the Lord but are the enemy's devices that must be met and condemned, with believers giving the enemy no place by refusing to think or speak evil.
Being severe and exacting toward erring brethren of like passions, ready to criticize, censure, and condemn, is unbecoming and out of place and stands rebuked, springing from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Those who constantly need grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment must exercise the same tenderness, forbearance, patience, compassion, and love with grateful hearts toward others, cultivating meekness and humility rather than quickness to condemn. Harshness, lack of courtesy, and a severe dictatorial manner toward God's children are forbidden, and transformation in spirit from self-superiority and a hard, cruel spirit is required, for without it a person wounds and bruises souls, causes brethren to lose all confidence, and cannot handle sacred things or represent Jesus Christ.
Those in positions of responsibility must not rule as kings or act in an overbearing way lording it over others, but should give wise counsel that protects and strengthens God's people, act with wisdom, reject selfishness, and set an example others can safely follow. The chapter gives educating lessons of high and holy principles for daily practical life, especially for those in places of responsibility in the publishing work in educating and training youth. It requires first reforming self and then working under the one head Christ Jesus with perfect love and compassion, acting as brethren as branches in the same vine, showing compassion, tenderness and love, and remembering in all training that the youth are the property of Jesus Christ.
The verse begins the lesson to all professed Christians against self-sufficiency and strife for supremacy. Laying plans in self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity when not especially requested, taking satisfaction in seeing deficiencies in brethren, letting self interpose between the soul and God, fancying one's discernment and judgment superior while failing to discern one's own spirit, and hindering the work by allowing Satan to use words that ought to build up the Redeemer's kingdom grieve the Spirit of the Saviour. Inward concealed and manifest strife to be first turns men who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards instead of advances the work, and keeps the Lord from manifesting His power and grace until all this unsanctified element is cleansed from the soul temple. The parable applies to forgiving and ceasing to hold brethren strictly accountable for perceived wrongs, as in Daniel's need to forgive, and to freely forgiving another person's debt as one hopes the Lord will forgive his own debt to God, releasing a brother from a debt rather than pressing claims too severely, which follows God's requirements and brings His blessing and favor.