The Parable of the Debtors
The apostles now questioned Jesus more humbly. He urged them to avoid all disputes and forgive all offenses. Peter asked Him: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” The Mosaic law said seven times; but Jesus answered that it should be “seventy times seven,” meaning forever.
To enforce this He told the parable of the two debtors. There was a king who sought to collect from one of his officials a debt of ten thousand talents. The official could not pay, so under the law, the king could have reduced him and all his family to beggary and slavery. But at the helpless man’s entreaty, the king forgave him the debt. The released debtor, as he passed rejoicing from his master’s presence, met another, lesser, servant of the king. Now the lesser servant owed the greater one the small sum of a hundred pence. At once this man, just released from his own huge debt, seized his poor debtor by the throat and demanded the money. Finding the poor man could not immediately pay it, he had him thrown into prison. The king, learning of this, withdrew his own generosity from the cruel official and sent the latter in his turn to the prison he so well deserved.
From this Christ pointed out that we, needing daily and hourly the forgiveness of God, must in our turn forgive those who have injured us.
The apostles now questioned Jesus more humbly. He urged them to avoid all disputes and forgive all offenses. Peter asked Him: “Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him?” The Mosaic law said seven times; but Jesus answered that it should be “seventy times seven,” meaning forever.
To enforce this He told the parable of the two debtors. There was a king who sought to collect from one of his officials a debt of ten thousand talents. The official could not pay, so under the law, the king could have reduced him and all his family to beggary and slavery. But at the helpless man’s entreaty, the king forgave him the debt. The released debtor, as he passed rejoicing from his master’s presence, met another, lesser, servant of the king. Now the lesser servant owed the greater one the small sum of a hundred pence. At once this man, just released from his own huge debt, seized his poor debtor by the throat and demanded the money. Finding the poor man could not immediately pay it, he had him thrown into prison. The king, learning of this, withdrew his own generosity from the cruel official and sent the latter in his turn to the prison he so well deserved.
From this Christ pointed out that we, needing daily and hourly the forgiveness of God, must in our turn forgive those who have injured us.
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