Matthew 18
Matthew 18:1-35 (NLT)
1 About that time the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Who is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?”
2 Jesus called a little child to him and put the child among them.
3 Then he said, “I tell you the truth, unless you turn from your sins and become like little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.
4 So anyone who becomes as humble as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven.
5 “And anyone who welcomes a little child like this on my behalf is welcoming me.
6 But if you cause one of these little ones who trusts in me to fall into sin, it would be better for you to have a large millstone tied around your neck and be drowned in the depths of the sea.
7 “What sorrow awaits the world, because it tempts people to sin. Temptations are inevitable, but what sorrow awaits the person who does the tempting.
8 So if your hand or foot causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one hand or one foot than to be thrown into eternal fire with both of your hands and feet.
9 And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It’s better to enter eternal life with only one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into the fire of hell.
10 “Beware that you don’t look down on any of these little ones. For I tell you that in heaven their angels are always in the presence of my heavenly Father.
12 “If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost?
13 And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away!
14 In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.
15 “If another believer sins against you, go privately and point out the offense. If the other person listens and confesses it, you have won that person back.
16 But if you are unsuccessful, take one or two others with you and go back again, so that everything you say may be confirmed by two or three witnesses.
17 If the person still refuses to listen, take your case to the church. Then if he or she won’t accept the church’s decision, treat that person as a pagan or a corrupt tax collector.
18 “I tell you the truth, whatever you forbid on earth will be forbidden in heaven, and whatever you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.
19 “I also tell you this: If two of you agree here on earth concerning anything you ask, my Father in heaven will do it for you.
20 For where two or three gather together as my followers, I am there among them.”
21 Then Peter came to him and asked, “Lord, how often should I forgive someone who sins against me? Seven times?”
22 “No, not seven times,” Jesus replied, “but seventy times seven!
23 “Therefore, the Kingdom of Heaven can be compared to a king who decided to bring his accounts up to date with servants who had borrowed money from him.
24 In the process, one of his debtors was brought in who owed him millions of dollars.
25 He couldn’t pay, so his master ordered that he be sold—along with his wife, his children, and everything he owned—to pay the debt.
26 “But the man fell down before his master and begged him, ‘Please, be patient with me, and I will pay it all.’
27 Then his master was filled with pity for him, and he released him and forgave his debt.
28 “But when the man left the king, he went to a fellow servant who owed him a few thousand dollars. He grabbed him by the throat and demanded instant payment.
29 “His fellow servant fell down before him and begged for a little more time. ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it,’ he pleaded.
30 But his creditor wouldn’t wait. He had the man arrested and put in prison until the debt could be paid in full.
31 “When some of the other servants saw this, they were very upset. They went to the king and told him everything that had happened.
32 Then the king called in the man he had forgiven and said, ‘You evil servant! I forgave you that tremendous debt because you pleaded with me.
33 Shouldn’t you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?’
34 Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
35 “That’s what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart.”
The power of sin and its antidote, forgiveness, are given their significance in a welcome advance into the presence of the Father. What makes a child the one to emulate in the kingdom is its freedom from sin’s disqualifying guilt and condemnation. He is the Holy One who does not tolerate even the smallest attitudes and behaviors that identify as his opponent’s offspring, not His. A child’s innocence from choosing defiance of God’s ways is the purpose and goal, then, of Jesus’ coming, that all those who receive His forgiveness would be freed from the power of sin to separate from the Father. To obtain forgiveness from sin and its condemnation alone is not enough, though. Without activating its purpose by fellowshipping and abiding in the presence of the Father, there will only be a return to not only sinning but, even worse, causing others to be disqualified as well.
Abiding with and knowing the Father is the necessary purpose of grace, which is much more significant than just the freedom from sin’s condemnation that qualifies for it. The power of forgiveness is great in releasing from the weight of another’s sin, but it is not fully complete until its true purpose is fulfilled in reconciliation and fellowship. God’s forgiveness of us was not just to free Him from holding anything against us, but it accomplishes its love goal when we’re restored to fellowship. The significance of forgiveness received is best authenticated in forgiveness given in a passion for the offender’s deliverance as well. It’s in a complete departure from sin as a master, both from us and to us, that Jesus’ coming as the Bread of Life is fulfilled. As He offered His body as a sacrifice for our total forgiveness, so there is a need for the offering of bodies, and anything that may have been done against them, in both the reception and giving of forgiveness. The last thing Jesus did with His disciples before offering Himself was to demonstrate His purpose in enabling fellowship. To hold anything against someone that would disable their welcomed presence is to not fully remember what Jesus did to enable our unworthy access to the Father’s. The more His purpose is fulfilled by drawing near to His side, the most dramatic of resulting changes will be the return to childhood innocence in the inability to sin or notice its offense.