My Daily Pause

Parable of the Wicked Servant – ca. 1620 – Domenico Fetti (1588–1623)

I love how beautifully The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant sums up how important mercy and being merciful is in our relationship with God. (Matthew 18:21-35)

The sum owed by the servant was several times more than the annual revenue of most of governments at the time, so hopefully the listener was shocked into realizing how hopeless his own case is and how forgiving God is.

If you haven’t already, read the passage and look at how this parable is a parallel to our own salvation:

• We are all servants of God
• The unredeemed servants have a debt that cannot be repaid
• Unredeemed servants fool themselves into thinking they have plenty of time to repay the debt
• God’s grace is given to his servants without any merit on their part
• A servant’s failure to act in the same way towards others will cause him to fall
• God’s mercy is 100% revocable if we do not become – and remain – merciful and godly people

Having forgiveness for others might be tough for us sometimes, but we know that Christ went through a pretty tough time for our own redemption.

What was the last situation where you needed to be more merciful to someone?

We serve a loving and forgiving God. When he forgives us, his forgiveness is complete.

Seven ways God Forgives Us

From these verses we can see that we are never in a position to be left unforgiven. The rest is up to us to make some changes and ask!

• “For thou, Lord, art good, and ready to forgive. . .” (Psalm 86:5)
• “As far as the east is from the west, so far hath he removed our transgressions from us” (Psalm 103:12)
• “. . .For thou hast cast all my sins behind my back” (Isaiah 38:17)
• “I, even I, am he that blotteth out thy transgressions for mine own sake, and will not remember thy sins” (Isaiah 43:25)
• “I have blotted out, as a thick cloud, thy transgressions, and, and as a cloud, thy sins return unto me; for I have redeemed thee. Sing, O ye heavens; for the Lord hath done it: shout, ye lower parts of the earth: break forth into singing, ye mountains, O forest, and every tree therein: for the Lord hath redeemed. . .” (Isaiah 44:22, 23)
• “. . .I will remember their sin no more” (Jeremiah 31:34)
• “Who is a God like unto thee, that pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of his heritage? He retaineth not his anger forever, because he delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, he will have compassion upon us; he will subdue our iniquities; and thou will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea” (Micah 7:18).

Daily Bible reading for August 19

Psalm 17
1 Samuel 4
Jeremiah 49
Mark 16

Rembrandt – Prodigal Son

Forgiveness is a tough work. It’s a Christ-like trait and a trait Christ told us to have.

To not exercise forgiveness so that it comes easy and a way of life, to not give someone another chance every time they ask is to test the grace that God has shown us.

The Master Teacher shows us this in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. (Matthew 18:21-35) Here he compares God’s forgiveness of insurmountable debt to how we treat relatively insignificant debt. Here’s the takeaway Jesus intended:

• In the same way that God is forgiving, he expects that from us (Matthew 18:33)
• A lack of mercy is considered wicked (Matthew 18:32)
• If we fail to offer mercy like God did, we can lose it (Matthew 18:35)

This isn’t just some command that God gave without demonstrating it himself. We can see throughout the Old Testament how quick he is to forgive his children. Literally every time they fell away he took them back – just for the asking.

That’s why God’s kingdom is such a good place to be.

Daily Bible reading for July 9

Ecclesiastes 5:8-17
Joshua 7
Jeremiah 2:1-3:5
Matthew 18

The judgment day is coming. We don’t know when, but we know how God will divide those who are worthy from those who are not. Paul gives us a good look at the rewards that are being prepared in 2 Thessalonians 1:5-12. Those who think they can somehow “squeak through” haven’t studied their Bible very much.

Thankfully, we have a God that is quick to forgive and desires to find us worthy. God forgiveness is shown in a number of ways throughout the Bible:

1. He is good and ready to forgive. . .” (Psalm 86:5)
2. He removes sin far, far away from us (Psalm 103:12).
   
3. He helps us to forget our sins and move on (Isaiah 38:17).
   
4. He forgets our sins as soon as he forgives them (Isaiah 43:25, Jeremiah 31:34)
   
5. He is compassionate (Micah 7:18).
   

We have a ready and willing God. We  just have to take the action to get his forgiveness.

If you are not a New Testament Christian (or don’t know if you are) take a look at God’s plan for becoming one.

Daily Bible reading for May 21

Psalm 140
Numbers 25
Isaiah 61-62
2 Thessalonians 1

No sin is too big for the blood of Christ to cleanse.

That’s what Paul was trying to tell the Corinthians. (2 Corinthians 2:5-11) They had one in their group that had committed a pretty ugly sin (see 1 Corinthians 5 for the background.) A sin that even the pagans looked down on.

The church properly handled it according to Paul’s instruction (1 Corinthians 5:13) and he eventually repented – but then Paul had to tell them to “reaffirm their love.” (2 Corinthians 2:8) They weren’t going to forgive him as a church!

Truth be told, his sin probably wasn’t any greater than some of the things the others had done.

It’s good that Christ died for us so we can have forgiveness, so it’s very unbecoming to a church, or to Christians, to withhold forgiveness from a penitent Christian needing and asking for it.

No sin is too big for the blood of Christ to cleanse!

Daily bible reading for April 10

God give Moses instructions for the priests and the offerings. Isaiah pronounces woe to the wicked.

Psalm 100
Leviticus 6:8-7:38
Isaiah 5
2 Corinthians 1:12-2:11