And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents.
When the king begins to settle accounts with his servants, one is brought before him owing ten thousand talents. The sum is immense beyond all paying, no less than fifteen million dollars by the lowest reckoning, and the servant is a high officer entrusted with great wealth who has nothing with which to pay. The king pictures God, and the debt is the immeasurable account sinners owe Him through transgression of His broken law, which humanity cannot save itself from paying. That debt is freely pardoned by divine mercy at infinite price, because Christ clothed His divinity with humanity and gave His life as the just for the unjust to secure salvation. One so forgiven must from the heart forgive his brother's far smaller trespasses, for the ten thousand talents beside the hundred pence show human sins against God outweighing beyond measure the sins of others against us, and refusal to forgive revokes the pardon and delivers the unforgiving debtor to the tormentors.
Parable Setting and Context
When the king began to reckon and settle accounts with his servants, one servant was brought before him owing ten thousand talents, opening the lesson of accountability and forgiveness. The bringing of the servant at the examination of the accounts set before the hearers an immense debt that frames all that follows. The servant was a high-ranking officer entrusted with great wealth to administer government affairs, and his account showed him unfaithful in his trust.
The debt of ten thousand talents was extraordinarily great and immense, beyond any ability of the servant to meet. He had nothing with which to pay, and the amount stood as one he could not repay. By the lowest computation it was valued at no less than fifteen million dollars.
The reckoning over property was a temporal thing presented to represent a spiritual thing. It was spoken to answer Peter's question about forgiveness, showing both divine pardon and the example of forbearance human beings should exercise toward one another. The specific details of the royal accounting carry no separate spiritual meaning of their own.
The verse belongs to Christ's teaching in Matthew 18 about responding to error and sin. That teaching establishes the duty to address wrongdoing and to seek to save the person who is in the wrong. It shows that the church must be thoroughly organized, and it teaches that people reap as they sow.
Debt Owed to God
The king in the reckoning pictures God, and Christ as represented by the king, while the reckoning itself pictures God's compassionate dealing with those in error in freely forgiving so large a debt. The debt brought before him is the great, immeasurable account sinners owe God through years of misusing what belongs to Him. It means sin under the condemnation of the broken law, under which humanity stands condemned and cannot save itself, having nothing to give in return and no means to pay. The reckoning over property is a temporal thing presented to represent this spiritual reality.
The ten thousand talents are our own sins and transgressions against God, including many errors and sins for which love, pity and patience have been shown. It is a sum that cannot be computed, illustrating how much a person owes the Lord. That forgiveness is made possible at infinite price to redeem from hopeless despair, because Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, came in human nature, gave His life as the just for the unjust, and died in self-denial to secure salvation. By this blood-bought redemption, purchased by His blood at infinite price for human souls, sinners are His purchased possession rescued from hopeless despair.
The king's cancellation and release of the debt shows God's divine, supernatural pardon and mercy toward the debtor who pleads for compassion. It is freely given through mercy and cannot be earned or repaid by the debtor, not repaid by works but accepted as a free gift of grace. The ten thousand talents stand in overwhelming contrast to the hundred pence owed by the fellow servant, at nearly a million to one, showing that human sins against God far exceed the sins others commit against us. The greatness of the forgiven debt thus measures guilt before God and exposes the harshness of treating a fellow servant harshly in a similar case.
Forgiveness Received Requires Forgiving
One so forgiven must from the heart forgive every brother his trespasses, walking and working in the love of Christ and showing compassion, tenderness, forbearance and love to fellow sinners and giving freely to others. Being forgiven so great a debt calls a person to forgive others' much smaller offenses in church, in business and in every part of life, and to conduct all business on His lines. Those who seek God's pardon must forgive others from the heart, for God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive when they themselves have been forgiven. The enormous forgiven debt set beside the much smaller debt owed by the fellow servant teaches that those who have received such mercy must not treat a fellow servant harshly over a small debt but must show mercy and forgiveness in return. Because Christ bears with us and forgives us at great cost, we must show the same compassion and forgiveness to others rather than criticize, condemn, or deal harshly with those who err.
The ten thousand talents beside the hundred pence, at nearly a million to one, measures the overwhelming guilt before God compared with what a fellow servant may owe us. People who fail to recognize how helpless they are to pay their own debt may rely on their works to earn God's favor instead of accepting grace as a free gift, and this self-righteousness leaves them unforgiving toward others. The king's forgiveness of so enormous an unpayable debt makes later refusal to forgive a much smaller debt inexcusable. Refusal to show mercy after being forgiven so much revokes the pardon, so that the unforgiving debtor is delivered to the tormentors. The Lord will repay hardheartedness, unsympathetic faultfinding and an exacting, undisciplined spirit, as when a man blames his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, withholds pity, patience and longsuffering kindness, and fails to bind the family together; unless he falls on the Rock and is broken, has his hard heart melted and softened, dies to self and is entirely renewed as a new man in Christ with love that suffers long and is kind, tender and pitiful, he cannot be saved in the kingdom of heaven.
God judges people by the spirit they show toward erring brothers and sisters rather than by their own self-assessment. The parable warns against treating others harshly while depending on God's compassion, and teaches that people are accountable according to the light and knowledge they have received. The verse means constant need of grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment, so hearts filled with gratitude to God must show the same tenderness, forbearance and love to erring brethren of like passions with ourselves. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn, is out of place and unbecoming for Christians, coming from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Meekness and humility must be cultivated continually, becoming as little children, practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice without regard to ease and comfort to seek and save the wandering and perishing soul, as the shepherd seeks the one lost sheep without reprimand and rejoices when it is found.
Application to Church and Life
Matthew 18 lays down the most positive principles for disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus to act upon in every case and under all circumstances, forbidding all striving for supremacy and showing that greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is not position, outward splendor, or authority but spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion, and its words apply to everyone who claims discipleship. The chapter is a call to humble oneself before God and to turn from self toward sympathy and love for others, especially through personal effort for those outside Christ, for following Jesus requires thorough conversion, a single purpose, and pure motives. Its practical lesson as a whole is to be hung in the chambers of the mind, kept in memory, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience, teaching obedience to God's holy law in loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self as the only terms for securing eternal life. That obedience is practiced by cultivating the garden of the soul, removing every weed and tare, taking stewardship of self instead of seeking weeds in the neighbor's garden, purifying thoughts and bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ, and refusing to scatter words recklessly without careful consideration of where they lodge and what they produce.
The lessons must be received and practiced as a learner in the school of Christ, giving the discipline of the Word by which a person takes himself in hand, reprimands himself, and overcomes selfish, unholy tempers and temptations so as to be fit to handle sacred things and preach the Word. In that instruction believers are to love fellow believers with tenderness, compassion, and courtesy, for people reap as they sow, and they are not to separate from one another but to address wrongdoing in a spirit that preserves love and fellowship. The words are educating lessons of high and holy principles for daily practical life, calling for compassion, tenderness, and love, for first reforming self and then reforming youth with perfect love and compassion under Christ as head, for acting as brethren as branches in the same vine, and for treating youth in care as the property of Jesus Christ with deep interest and earnest prayer.
Those in positions of responsibility are to follow this instruction to counsel and protect God's people rather than rule over them as kings, rejecting selfishness, narrow-mindedness, impatience, boasting, and overbearing conduct. Those who do sacred work must be transformed in spirit in order to represent Jesus Christ, dealing with God's children with courtesy, kindness, encouragement and mercy rather than harshness, severity, and a dictatorial, condemnatory, overbearing spirit that wounds and bruises souls, exasperates brethren and destroys confidence, loving neighbor as self and helping and favoring brethren as acting in Christ's stead. The chapter rebukes dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, and strife to be highly esteemed by men, and especially criticism and faultfinding. Criticism and faultfinding is expressly the work of the devil, who began that work in the heavenly courts by claiming he could do wonderful things if not hampered by the law of Jehovah, by suggesting to angels that a change in the government of God would benefit the heavenly family, by putting his own thoughts in their minds and then repeating them to the highest Authority as theirs, and by covering his tracks so that suspicion and distrust of God and of one another spread without detection, until God took hold of it with decision and expelled the instigator of evil and the disloyal for the good of the loyal and true; therefore Matthew 18 is to be read in plain, decided, clear-cut words to anyone who begins criticism and faultfinding, because it traces out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences.
Self-sufficiency, pride in one's own discernment and judgment, and inward concealed strife for the supremacy and open strife to be first must be cleansed from the soul, because this unsanctified spirit grieves the Saviour, hinders the work, and keeps the Lord from manifesting His power and grace through workers who ought to be a blessing. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn, is out of place and unbecoming for Christians, coming from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Meekness and humility must instead be cultivated continually, becoming as little children and practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice without regard to ease and comfort to seek and save the wandering and perishing soul for whom Christ died, as the shepherd seeks the one lost sheep without reprimand and rejoices when it is found. Because Christ bears with us and forgives our own sins and transgressions against God at infinite price to redeem us from hopeless despair, we need His grace constantly and forgiveness daily and mercy and compassion every moment, and with hearts filled with gratitude we must show the same tenderness, forbearance, compassion, love and forgiveness to erring brethren of like passions with ourselves rather than criticize, condemn, or deal harshly with those who err.
Being forgiven so great a debt calls a person to forgive from the heart every trespass of every brother, with its much smaller offenses, in church, business, and every part of life, to walk and work in the love of Christ and conduct all business on His lines, for God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive when they themselves have been forgiven. The greatness of the forgiven debt stands against all harshness and oppression toward fellow servants in similar cases, and the king's reckoning pictures God's compassionate dealing with those in error in freely forgiving so large a debt, while the debt itself represents the great, immeasurable account sinners owe God through years of misusing what belongs to Him. A hardhearted, unsympathetic, faultfinding man who blames his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, who withholds from his wife when she makes mistakes the pity, patience and longsuffering kindness God has shown him, and who fails as husband and priest of the family to bind the family together and carry accountability, is in the case of the relentless servant owing ten thousand talents for many errors and sins. Unless he falls on the Rock and is broken all to pieces, has his hard heart melted and softened, dies to self and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ with love that suffers long and is kind, tender and pitiful, the Lord will repay him for all these things, and with that faultfinding, exacting, undisciplined spirit he cannot be saved in the kingdom of heaven.
When the king begins to settle accounts with his servants, one is brought before him owing ten thousand talents. The sum is immense beyond all paying, no less than fifteen million dollars by the lowest reckoning, and the servant is a high officer entrusted with great wealth who has nothing with which to pay. The king pictures God, and the debt is the immeasurable account sinners owe Him through transgression of His broken law, which humanity cannot save itself from paying. That debt is freely pardoned by divine mercy at infinite price, because Christ clothed His divinity with humanity and gave His life as the just for the unjust to secure salvation. One so forgiven must from the heart forgive his brother's far smaller trespasses, for the ten thousand talents beside the hundred pence show human sins against God outweighing beyond measure the sins of others against us, and refusal to forgive revokes the pardon and delivers the unforgiving debtor to the tormentors.
Parable Setting and Context
When the king began to reckon and settle accounts with his servants, one servant was brought before him owing ten thousand talents, opening the lesson of accountability and forgiveness. The bringing of the servant at the examination of the accounts set before the hearers an immense debt that frames all that follows. The servant was a high-ranking officer entrusted with great wealth to administer government affairs, and his account showed him unfaithful in his trust.
The debt of ten thousand talents was extraordinarily great and immense, beyond any ability of the servant to meet. He had nothing with which to pay, and the amount stood as one he could not repay. By the lowest computation it was valued at no less than fifteen million dollars.
The reckoning over property was a temporal thing presented to represent a spiritual thing. It was spoken to answer Peter's question about forgiveness, showing both divine pardon and the example of forbearance human beings should exercise toward one another. The specific details of the royal accounting carry no separate spiritual meaning of their own.
The verse belongs to Christ's teaching in Matthew 18 about responding to error and sin. That teaching establishes the duty to address wrongdoing and to seek to save the person who is in the wrong. It shows that the church must be thoroughly organized, and it teaches that people reap as they sow.
Debt Owed to God
The king in the reckoning pictures God, and Christ as represented by the king, while the reckoning itself pictures God's compassionate dealing with those in error in freely forgiving so large a debt. The debt brought before him is the great, immeasurable account sinners owe God through years of misusing what belongs to Him. It means sin under the condemnation of the broken law, under which humanity stands condemned and cannot save itself, having nothing to give in return and no means to pay. The reckoning over property is a temporal thing presented to represent this spiritual reality.
The ten thousand talents are our own sins and transgressions against God, including many errors and sins for which love, pity and patience have been shown. It is a sum that cannot be computed, illustrating how much a person owes the Lord. That forgiveness is made possible at infinite price to redeem from hopeless despair, because Christ clothed His divinity with humanity, came in human nature, gave His life as the just for the unjust, and died in self-denial to secure salvation. By this blood-bought redemption, purchased by His blood at infinite price for human souls, sinners are His purchased possession rescued from hopeless despair.
The king's cancellation and release of the debt shows God's divine, supernatural pardon and mercy toward the debtor who pleads for compassion. It is freely given through mercy and cannot be earned or repaid by the debtor, not repaid by works but accepted as a free gift of grace. The ten thousand talents stand in overwhelming contrast to the hundred pence owed by the fellow servant, at nearly a million to one, showing that human sins against God far exceed the sins others commit against us. The greatness of the forgiven debt thus measures guilt before God and exposes the harshness of treating a fellow servant harshly in a similar case.
Forgiveness Received Requires Forgiving
One so forgiven must from the heart forgive every brother his trespasses, walking and working in the love of Christ and showing compassion, tenderness, forbearance and love to fellow sinners and giving freely to others. Being forgiven so great a debt calls a person to forgive others' much smaller offenses in church, in business and in every part of life, and to conduct all business on His lines. Those who seek God's pardon must forgive others from the heart, for God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive when they themselves have been forgiven. The enormous forgiven debt set beside the much smaller debt owed by the fellow servant teaches that those who have received such mercy must not treat a fellow servant harshly over a small debt but must show mercy and forgiveness in return. Because Christ bears with us and forgives us at great cost, we must show the same compassion and forgiveness to others rather than criticize, condemn, or deal harshly with those who err.
The ten thousand talents beside the hundred pence, at nearly a million to one, measures the overwhelming guilt before God compared with what a fellow servant may owe us. People who fail to recognize how helpless they are to pay their own debt may rely on their works to earn God's favor instead of accepting grace as a free gift, and this self-righteousness leaves them unforgiving toward others. The king's forgiveness of so enormous an unpayable debt makes later refusal to forgive a much smaller debt inexcusable. Refusal to show mercy after being forgiven so much revokes the pardon, so that the unforgiving debtor is delivered to the tormentors. The Lord will repay hardheartedness, unsympathetic faultfinding and an exacting, undisciplined spirit, as when a man blames his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, withholds pity, patience and longsuffering kindness, and fails to bind the family together; unless he falls on the Rock and is broken, has his hard heart melted and softened, dies to self and is entirely renewed as a new man in Christ with love that suffers long and is kind, tender and pitiful, he cannot be saved in the kingdom of heaven.
God judges people by the spirit they show toward erring brothers and sisters rather than by their own self-assessment. The parable warns against treating others harshly while depending on God's compassion, and teaches that people are accountable according to the light and knowledge they have received. The verse means constant need of grace and daily forgiveness and mercy and compassion every moment, so hearts filled with gratitude to God must show the same tenderness, forbearance and love to erring brethren of like passions with ourselves. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn, is out of place and unbecoming for Christians, coming from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Meekness and humility must be cultivated continually, becoming as little children, practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice without regard to ease and comfort to seek and save the wandering and perishing soul, as the shepherd seeks the one lost sheep without reprimand and rejoices when it is found.
Application to Church and Life
Matthew 18 lays down the most positive principles for disciples of the meek and lowly Jesus to act upon in every case and under all circumstances, forbidding all striving for supremacy and showing that greatness in Christ's spiritual kingdom is not position, outward splendor, or authority but spiritual excellence manifested in true conversion, and its words apply to everyone who claims discipleship. The chapter is a call to humble oneself before God and to turn from self toward sympathy and love for others, especially through personal effort for those outside Christ, for following Jesus requires thorough conversion, a single purpose, and pure motives. Its practical lesson as a whole is to be hung in the chambers of the mind, kept in memory, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience, teaching obedience to God's holy law in loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self as the only terms for securing eternal life. That obedience is practiced by cultivating the garden of the soul, removing every weed and tare, taking stewardship of self instead of seeking weeds in the neighbor's garden, purifying thoughts and bringing them into captivity to Jesus Christ, and refusing to scatter words recklessly without careful consideration of where they lodge and what they produce.
The lessons must be received and practiced as a learner in the school of Christ, giving the discipline of the Word by which a person takes himself in hand, reprimands himself, and overcomes selfish, unholy tempers and temptations so as to be fit to handle sacred things and preach the Word. In that instruction believers are to love fellow believers with tenderness, compassion, and courtesy, for people reap as they sow, and they are not to separate from one another but to address wrongdoing in a spirit that preserves love and fellowship. The words are educating lessons of high and holy principles for daily practical life, calling for compassion, tenderness, and love, for first reforming self and then reforming youth with perfect love and compassion under Christ as head, for acting as brethren as branches in the same vine, and for treating youth in care as the property of Jesus Christ with deep interest and earnest prayer.
Those in positions of responsibility are to follow this instruction to counsel and protect God's people rather than rule over them as kings, rejecting selfishness, narrow-mindedness, impatience, boasting, and overbearing conduct. Those who do sacred work must be transformed in spirit in order to represent Jesus Christ, dealing with God's children with courtesy, kindness, encouragement and mercy rather than harshness, severity, and a dictatorial, condemnatory, overbearing spirit that wounds and bruises souls, exasperates brethren and destroys confidence, loving neighbor as self and helping and favoring brethren as acting in Christ's stead. The chapter rebukes dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, and strife to be highly esteemed by men, and especially criticism and faultfinding. Criticism and faultfinding is expressly the work of the devil, who began that work in the heavenly courts by claiming he could do wonderful things if not hampered by the law of Jehovah, by suggesting to angels that a change in the government of God would benefit the heavenly family, by putting his own thoughts in their minds and then repeating them to the highest Authority as theirs, and by covering his tracks so that suspicion and distrust of God and of one another spread without detection, until God took hold of it with decision and expelled the instigator of evil and the disloyal for the good of the loyal and true; therefore Matthew 18 is to be read in plain, decided, clear-cut words to anyone who begins criticism and faultfinding, because it traces out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences.
Self-sufficiency, pride in one's own discernment and judgment, and inward concealed strife for the supremacy and open strife to be first must be cleansed from the soul, because this unsanctified spirit grieves the Saviour, hinders the work, and keeps the Lord from manifesting His power and grace through workers who ought to be a blessing. Being severe and exacting, ready to criticize, censure and condemn, is out of place and unbecoming for Christians, coming from self-esteem and self-exaltation and striving for supremacy. Meekness and humility must instead be cultivated continually, becoming as little children and practicing self-denial and self-sacrifice without regard to ease and comfort to seek and save the wandering and perishing soul for whom Christ died, as the shepherd seeks the one lost sheep without reprimand and rejoices when it is found. Because Christ bears with us and forgives our own sins and transgressions against God at infinite price to redeem us from hopeless despair, we need His grace constantly and forgiveness daily and mercy and compassion every moment, and with hearts filled with gratitude we must show the same tenderness, forbearance, compassion, love and forgiveness to erring brethren of like passions with ourselves rather than criticize, condemn, or deal harshly with those who err.
Being forgiven so great a debt calls a person to forgive from the heart every trespass of every brother, with its much smaller offenses, in church, business, and every part of life, to walk and work in the love of Christ and conduct all business on His lines, for God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive when they themselves have been forgiven. The greatness of the forgiven debt stands against all harshness and oppression toward fellow servants in similar cases, and the king's reckoning pictures God's compassionate dealing with those in error in freely forgiving so large a debt, while the debt itself represents the great, immeasurable account sinners owe God through years of misusing what belongs to Him. A hardhearted, unsympathetic, faultfinding man who blames his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials caused by his own unconverted heart, who withholds from his wife when she makes mistakes the pity, patience and longsuffering kindness God has shown him, and who fails as husband and priest of the family to bind the family together and carry accountability, is in the case of the relentless servant owing ten thousand talents for many errors and sins. Unless he falls on the Rock and is broken all to pieces, has his hard heart melted and softened, dies to self and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ with love that suffers long and is kind, tender and pitiful, the Lord will repay him for all these things, and with that faultfinding, exacting, undisciplined spirit he cannot be saved in the kingdom of heaven.