And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt.
The verse shows a servant who had just been forgiven an enormous debt refusing his fellow servant's plea for patience and casting him into prison until the much smaller debt owed to himself should be paid. It teaches the danger of an unforgiving spirit, that those who have received compassion and cancellation must extend the same tenderness, patience and forbearance to others. His harshness contrasts with his master's compassion and exposes a selfish, hardened heart, for a person's sins against God are far greater than another's sins against him. His own pardon was revoked because he would not forgive, for God deals with people as they deal with their brethren and they reap as they sow. Those who condemn another without mercy and without love and forgiveness will themselves face justice without mercy.
The Servant's Refusal
The forgiven servant refused his fellow servant's plea for patience and pity and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. He ignored the very appeal for patience he himself had made to his lord, forgot his own forgiveness, and acted as an oppressor toward a fellow sinner over a small debt. He used his legal power to enforce exact repayment and showed severity instead of tenderness, compassion, patience, forbearance, and love toward the erring. His harshness stands in contrast to his master's compassion and reveals a selfish, hardened, unforgiving heart not softened by mercy, illustrating the danger of refusing to extend received mercy to others. Such a course must not be seen among God's people, who are to walk and work in Christ's love 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 debt owed to him was only a small amount, much smaller and far less than the enormous debt that had been forgiven him. Though he had received forgiveness for a vastly greater debt, he showed no forgiveness or mercy in return, seizing the distressed debtor and withholding forgiveness from a brother.
He demanded repayment of what he considered his due and put the man in prison, carrying out against another the same harsh sentence that had been revoked for himself. In refusing patience and mercy after receiving mercy, he failed to show others the compassion received from God.
Setting in Matthew 18
Matthew 18:30 belongs to Christ's instruction to His disciples on the principles by which they are to act in every circumstance. That instruction teaches that greatness in His kingdom consists not in position, splendor, or authority, but in spiritual excellence shown through true conversion. It calls for humility before God and love and sympathy toward others, including personal effort for those outside Christ, and following Him requires self-forgetfulness, simplicity, unselfishness, and thorough conversion.
The whole of Matthew 18 is a practical lesson to be hung in the chambers of the mind, kept in memory, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. The lesson teaches obeying God's holy law by loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self as the only terms for securing eternal life. It requires taking one's own soul as a garden under personal stewardship to remove every weed and tare Satan has sown instead of being occupied finding weeds in a neighbor's garden, purifying one's own thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Christ, and not scattering words recklessly without careful consideration of where they lodge and what result they produce. It forbids despising one of the little ones and forbids a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and that domineering spirit closes the gates of heaven. Without practicing this lesson no one will ever enter the kingdom of heaven.
The chapter is Christ's organized instruction for the church in dealing rightly with those who fall into error and sin and do wrong. Dissension and alienation can be healed when those corrected receive reproof and turn from their wrong course, while refusing correction strengthens wrongdoing and harms God's work. Those entrusted with responsibility must not act selfishly or overbearingly but are to give wise counsel, protect and strengthen God's people, and set an example others can safely follow rather than ruling over them.
Read with the rest of Matthew 18, the verse traces out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences. It is part of the lesson to all professed Christians against self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity, and striving for supremacy and to be first, and it stands as a plain, decided, clear-cut rebuke of dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, strife for supremacy, criticism, disrespect, resentment, faultfinding, and failure to work in unity. The conduct condemned here does not follow God's way, for the unsanctified spirit interposes self between men and God, grieves the Spirit of the Saviour, and hinders the work by turning men who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards instead of advances it, and it must be cleansed from the soul temple before the Lord can manifest His power and grace. Harsh, unforgiving dealing with a fellow servant is expressly the work of the devil, the same work he began in the heavenly courts by deceiving angels, seeking sympathy, suggesting a change in the government of God, putting his own thoughts in minds and then repeating them as theirs, and sowing suspicion and distrust of God and of one another while covering his tracks and hampering by the law of Jehovah, until rebellion had to be taken hold of by God alone with expulsion of the disloyal with the instigator of evil for the good of the loyal and true. The parable points beyond the prison scene to the wider picture of Christ seeking lost sinners and rejoicing when one repents.
Call to Show Mercy
The refusal to show pity to a fellow servant who owed a much smaller debt, casting him into prison until he could pay despite his plea for patience, exposes the danger of an unforgiving spirit after receiving compassion and cancellation of a far greater debt. Those who depend on mercy and have been forgiven much must not treat the erring with severity or insist on exact repayment, but must extend to others the same tenderness, compassion, patience, forbearance, and love they have received. Withholding forgiveness from a brother is wrong precisely because it contrasts with the compassion and debt-cancellation already received.
That harshness toward a fellow servant stands in direct contrast to the master's compassion toward the one in error, revealing a selfish, hardened, unmerciful heart that has not been softened by mercy. Though forgiven a vastly greater debt, the servant forgot his own forgiveness, ignored the same plea for patience he himself had made, and used his legal power as an oppressor over a small amount. It is rigid harshness toward a brother's wrong while one's own record stands charged with unconfessed sins, condemning the refusal of compassion after receiving compassion. To hold others strictly accountable for their wrongs instead of showing mercy is altogether wrong for one whom God has forgiven much.
The scale of the debts shows how much greater a person's sins against God are than another person's sins against them. Refusal to show mercy reveals failure to understand one's own need for God's free grace, for those who seek God's favor through their own works and self-righteousness become exacting and unforgiving toward others.
Those who seek God's pardon must forgive others from the heart, for God deals with people as they deal with their brethren. One forgiven a great debt must not hold others to strict account for lesser wrongs, as seen when grievances are held against brethren despite God's mercy. Pressing claims harshly and refusing to release a fellow servant until payment is made must give way to forgiving a brother's debt as one asks God to forgive one's own.
Judgment on Unforgiveness
The servant who refused his fellow's plea and cast him into prison till the debt should be paid lost his own pardon because he would not forgive, and in this the verse shows that people reap according to what they sow. Those who seek pardon must forgive others from the heart, for the revoking of mercy answers the refusal of mercy. Harsh dealing with a fellow sinner stands in contrast with divine compassion toward those in error, for the forgiven servant forgot his own forgiveness and acted as an oppressor over a small debt by refusing pity and imprisoning his fellow. Such a course must not be seen among Seventh-day Adventists, who are to walk and work in the love of Christ and conduct all business on His lines, because the work of those who refuse to forgive others when they themselves have been forgiven will not receive divine sanction.
The lesson of Matthew 18 to which the verse belongs must be studied and brought into practical life, since without practicing it no one will enter the kingdom of heaven. That instruction forbids despising one of the little ones and forbids a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and such a domineering spirit closes the gates of heaven. The verse exposes an unsanctified spirit of self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity, and striving for supremacy and to be first, which interposes self between men and God, grieves the Spirit of the Saviour, and hinders the work by turning those who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards rather than advances it. This spirit must be cleansed from the soul temple before divine power and grace can be manifested.
Severity toward others when mercy has been received is condemned by the standard that judgment follows the light and knowledge received, so compassion given to others should match the compassion desired for oneself, and how one treats others should be weighed before condemning them. Condemning another without mercy while failing to show love and forgiveness is unjust, and those who judge without mercy will themselves face justice without mercy. The same relentless spirit appears where one who has received pity, patience, and love for many errors and sins refuses the same longsuffering kindness at home and in the church, feeling free to find fault, express the natural heart, and blame wife and brethren for trials springing from an unconverted heart. Such a spirit could not live in heaven, for it would find fault with God and the holy angels and the saints, refuse discipline, and insist on its own way, and unless the hard heart falls upon the Rock and is broken, is melted and softened, dies to self, and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, the Lord will repay for all these things. The hard, cruel, unforgiving spirit that casts a brother aside instead of showing mercy, with harshness and lack of courtesy in dealing with God's children, wounds and bruises souls, breaks love for neighbor as self, and misrepresents Christ. No one with that dictatorial, condemnatory spirit is fit to handle sacred things until transformed in spirit, purged of cruelty, and renewed to reveal the Redeemer's kindness and mercy.
Living Out Forgiveness
Matthew 18:30 shows human harshness toward a fellow sinner in contrast with divine compassion toward those in error, for the servant forgiven a great debt forgot his own forgiveness and acted as an oppressor toward his fellow servant, refusing pity and imprisoning him over a small debt. Such a course must not be seen among Seventh-day Adventists, who are all to learn from this lesson to walk and work in the love of Christ and to conduct all business on His lines. God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive others when they themselves have been forgiven.
The servant's refusal of his fellow servant's plea for patience and his having him imprisoned until repayment contrasts with the king's merciful pardon and exposes lack of compassion in one who has received forgiveness. Debtors who cannot pay are therefore not to be dealt with harshly, oppressed, or imprisoned, but to be treated with tenderness, patience, and forbearance. God's workers are to love as brethren and to be tenderhearted, pitiful, and courteous, a lesson to be read carefully and learned for present and eternal good. The refusal to release the fellow servant and imprisoning him over the debt warns against conduct that separates believers, for God does not desire anyone to draw apart from brethren.
The parable exposes the hardhearted and unsympathetic husband who has received pity, patience, and love from Jesus and God for his own many errors and sins yet refuses the same to his wife. Instead of manifesting toward her the longsuffering kindness shown to him, he feels at liberty to find fault, express his natural heart, and blame his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials resulting from his own unconverted heart. That relentless spirit could not live in heaven, for there it would find fault with God and the holy angels and the saints, refuse discipline, and want its own way. Unless he falls upon the Rock and is broken all to pieces, unless his hard heart is melted and softened, dies to self, and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, the Lord will repay for all these things.
One forgiven a great debt by God must not hold others to strict account for lesser wrongs or press claims harshly, and holding grievances against brethren despite God's mercy is like the merciless treatment by this servant, as seen in Daniel's grievances against his brethren. The question of how much is owed to the Lord applies the parable as a reminder of human obligations to God.
The verse shows a servant who had just been forgiven an enormous debt refusing his fellow servant's plea for patience and casting him into prison until the much smaller debt owed to himself should be paid. It teaches the danger of an unforgiving spirit, that those who have received compassion and cancellation must extend the same tenderness, patience and forbearance to others. His harshness contrasts with his master's compassion and exposes a selfish, hardened heart, for a person's sins against God are far greater than another's sins against him. His own pardon was revoked because he would not forgive, for God deals with people as they deal with their brethren and they reap as they sow. Those who condemn another without mercy and without love and forgiveness will themselves face justice without mercy.
The Servant's Refusal
The forgiven servant refused his fellow servant's plea for patience and pity and cast him into prison till he should pay the debt. He ignored the very appeal for patience he himself had made to his lord, forgot his own forgiveness, and acted as an oppressor toward a fellow sinner over a small debt. He used his legal power to enforce exact repayment and showed severity instead of tenderness, compassion, patience, forbearance, and love toward the erring. His harshness stands in contrast to his master's compassion and reveals a selfish, hardened, unforgiving heart not softened by mercy, illustrating the danger of refusing to extend received mercy to others. Such a course must not be seen among God's people, who are to walk and work in Christ's love 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 debt owed to him was only a small amount, much smaller and far less than the enormous debt that had been forgiven him. Though he had received forgiveness for a vastly greater debt, he showed no forgiveness or mercy in return, seizing the distressed debtor and withholding forgiveness from a brother.
He demanded repayment of what he considered his due and put the man in prison, carrying out against another the same harsh sentence that had been revoked for himself. In refusing patience and mercy after receiving mercy, he failed to show others the compassion received from God.
Setting in Matthew 18
Matthew 18:30 belongs to Christ's instruction to His disciples on the principles by which they are to act in every circumstance. That instruction teaches that greatness in His kingdom consists not in position, splendor, or authority, but in spiritual excellence shown through true conversion. It calls for humility before God and love and sympathy toward others, including personal effort for those outside Christ, and following Him requires self-forgetfulness, simplicity, unselfishness, and thorough conversion.
The whole of Matthew 18 is a practical lesson to be hung in the chambers of the mind, kept in memory, often read and pondered and obeyed and woven into Christian experience. The lesson teaches obeying God's holy law by loving God with all heart and soul and mind and strength and loving neighbor as self as the only terms for securing eternal life. It requires taking one's own soul as a garden under personal stewardship to remove every weed and tare Satan has sown instead of being occupied finding weeds in a neighbor's garden, purifying one's own thoughts by bringing them into captivity to Christ, and not scattering words recklessly without careful consideration of where they lodge and what result they produce. It forbids despising one of the little ones and forbids a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and that domineering spirit closes the gates of heaven. Without practicing this lesson no one will ever enter the kingdom of heaven.
The chapter is Christ's organized instruction for the church in dealing rightly with those who fall into error and sin and do wrong. Dissension and alienation can be healed when those corrected receive reproof and turn from their wrong course, while refusing correction strengthens wrongdoing and harms God's work. Those entrusted with responsibility must not act selfishly or overbearingly but are to give wise counsel, protect and strengthen God's people, and set an example others can safely follow rather than ruling over them.
Read with the rest of Matthew 18, the verse traces out the cause of disaffection and its evil consequences. It is part of the lesson to all professed Christians against self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity, and striving for supremacy and to be first, and it stands as a plain, decided, clear-cut rebuke of dissension, self-esteem, self-exaltation, strife for supremacy, criticism, disrespect, resentment, faultfinding, and failure to work in unity. The conduct condemned here does not follow God's way, for the unsanctified spirit interposes self between men and God, grieves the Spirit of the Saviour, and hinders the work by turning men who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards instead of advances it, and it must be cleansed from the soul temple before the Lord can manifest His power and grace. Harsh, unforgiving dealing with a fellow servant is expressly the work of the devil, the same work he began in the heavenly courts by deceiving angels, seeking sympathy, suggesting a change in the government of God, putting his own thoughts in minds and then repeating them as theirs, and sowing suspicion and distrust of God and of one another while covering his tracks and hampering by the law of Jehovah, until rebellion had to be taken hold of by God alone with expulsion of the disloyal with the instigator of evil for the good of the loyal and true. The parable points beyond the prison scene to the wider picture of Christ seeking lost sinners and rejoicing when one repents.
Call to Show Mercy
The refusal to show pity to a fellow servant who owed a much smaller debt, casting him into prison until he could pay despite his plea for patience, exposes the danger of an unforgiving spirit after receiving compassion and cancellation of a far greater debt. Those who depend on mercy and have been forgiven much must not treat the erring with severity or insist on exact repayment, but must extend to others the same tenderness, compassion, patience, forbearance, and love they have received. Withholding forgiveness from a brother is wrong precisely because it contrasts with the compassion and debt-cancellation already received.
That harshness toward a fellow servant stands in direct contrast to the master's compassion toward the one in error, revealing a selfish, hardened, unmerciful heart that has not been softened by mercy. Though forgiven a vastly greater debt, the servant forgot his own forgiveness, ignored the same plea for patience he himself had made, and used his legal power as an oppressor over a small amount. It is rigid harshness toward a brother's wrong while one's own record stands charged with unconfessed sins, condemning the refusal of compassion after receiving compassion. To hold others strictly accountable for their wrongs instead of showing mercy is altogether wrong for one whom God has forgiven much.
The scale of the debts shows how much greater a person's sins against God are than another person's sins against them. Refusal to show mercy reveals failure to understand one's own need for God's free grace, for those who seek God's favor through their own works and self-righteousness become exacting and unforgiving toward others.
Those who seek God's pardon must forgive others from the heart, for God deals with people as they deal with their brethren. One forgiven a great debt must not hold others to strict account for lesser wrongs, as seen when grievances are held against brethren despite God's mercy. Pressing claims harshly and refusing to release a fellow servant until payment is made must give way to forgiving a brother's debt as one asks God to forgive one's own.
Judgment on Unforgiveness
The servant who refused his fellow's plea and cast him into prison till the debt should be paid lost his own pardon because he would not forgive, and in this the verse shows that people reap according to what they sow. Those who seek pardon must forgive others from the heart, for the revoking of mercy answers the refusal of mercy. Harsh dealing with a fellow sinner stands in contrast with divine compassion toward those in error, for the forgiven servant forgot his own forgiveness and acted as an oppressor over a small debt by refusing pity and imprisoning his fellow. Such a course must not be seen among Seventh-day Adventists, who are to walk and work in the love of Christ and conduct all business on His lines, because the work of those who refuse to forgive others when they themselves have been forgiven will not receive divine sanction.
The lesson of Matthew 18 to which the verse belongs must be studied and brought into practical life, since without practicing it no one will enter the kingdom of heaven. That instruction forbids despising one of the little ones and forbids a masterly spirit that lords it over God's heritage, and such a domineering spirit closes the gates of heaven. The verse exposes an unsanctified spirit of self-sufficiency, standing back on dignity, and striving for supremacy and to be first, which interposes self between men and God, grieves the Spirit of the Saviour, and hinders the work by turning those who ought to be a blessing into a curse that retards rather than advances it. This spirit must be cleansed from the soul temple before divine power and grace can be manifested.
Severity toward others when mercy has been received is condemned by the standard that judgment follows the light and knowledge received, so compassion given to others should match the compassion desired for oneself, and how one treats others should be weighed before condemning them. Condemning another without mercy while failing to show love and forgiveness is unjust, and those who judge without mercy will themselves face justice without mercy. The same relentless spirit appears where one who has received pity, patience, and love for many errors and sins refuses the same longsuffering kindness at home and in the church, feeling free to find fault, express the natural heart, and blame wife and brethren for trials springing from an unconverted heart. Such a spirit could not live in heaven, for it would find fault with God and the holy angels and the saints, refuse discipline, and insist on its own way, and unless the hard heart falls upon the Rock and is broken, is melted and softened, dies to self, and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, the Lord will repay for all these things. The hard, cruel, unforgiving spirit that casts a brother aside instead of showing mercy, with harshness and lack of courtesy in dealing with God's children, wounds and bruises souls, breaks love for neighbor as self, and misrepresents Christ. No one with that dictatorial, condemnatory spirit is fit to handle sacred things until transformed in spirit, purged of cruelty, and renewed to reveal the Redeemer's kindness and mercy.
Living Out Forgiveness
Matthew 18:30 shows human harshness toward a fellow sinner in contrast with divine compassion toward those in error, for the servant forgiven a great debt forgot his own forgiveness and acted as an oppressor toward his fellow servant, refusing pity and imprisoning him over a small debt. Such a course must not be seen among Seventh-day Adventists, who are all to learn from this lesson to walk and work in the love of Christ and to conduct all business on His lines. God will not sanction the work of those who refuse to forgive others when they themselves have been forgiven.
The servant's refusal of his fellow servant's plea for patience and his having him imprisoned until repayment contrasts with the king's merciful pardon and exposes lack of compassion in one who has received forgiveness. Debtors who cannot pay are therefore not to be dealt with harshly, oppressed, or imprisoned, but to be treated with tenderness, patience, and forbearance. God's workers are to love as brethren and to be tenderhearted, pitiful, and courteous, a lesson to be read carefully and learned for present and eternal good. The refusal to release the fellow servant and imprisoning him over the debt warns against conduct that separates believers, for God does not desire anyone to draw apart from brethren.
The parable exposes the hardhearted and unsympathetic husband who has received pity, patience, and love from Jesus and God for his own many errors and sins yet refuses the same to his wife. Instead of manifesting toward her the longsuffering kindness shown to him, he feels at liberty to find fault, express his natural heart, and blame his wife at home and his brethren in the church for trials resulting from his own unconverted heart. That relentless spirit could not live in heaven, for there it would find fault with God and the holy angels and the saints, refuse discipline, and want its own way. Unless he falls upon the Rock and is broken all to pieces, unless his hard heart is melted and softened, dies to self, and is entirely renewed in heart and mind and spirit as a new man in Christ, the Lord will repay for all these things.
One forgiven a great debt by God must not hold others to strict account for lesser wrongs or press claims harshly, and holding grievances against brethren despite God's mercy is like the merciless treatment by this servant, as seen in Daniel's grievances against his brethren. The question of how much is owed to the Lord applies the parable as a reminder of human obligations to God.