READ: MATTHEW 18:22-33
I hope you have read the scripture first. Does this story bother you? Wow, I hope so. Think of it this way: A man is bankrupt and he owes another man a million dollars and there is no way he can ever pay his debt. So he goes to the man to whom he owes all this money and he begs and he pleads for mercy. The man felt sorry for him and forgave his debt. He gave him mercy. Wow. But look at how the man responded to that mercy. He went out and found a man who owed him $100 and demanded that he pay up. When the man couldn’t repay him, the man beat him up and had him thrown in jail. He showed no mercy at all. When the first man heard about what he did and how he treated that man who owed him so little, he said, “I forgave you. You would think that you would go and forgive the debts of others.” And then he had him thrown in jail. The point is that what we receive from God we need to pass on to others. If you have been loved, cared for, forgiven, if others have been kind and merciful to you, pass it on to somebody else. Mercy and grace is not to be kept. Mercy and grace is to be given away. Who do you need to give away some mercy to today?
I hope you have read the scripture first. Does this story bother you? Wow, I hope so. Think of it this way: A man is bankrupt and he owes another man a million dollars and there is no way he can ever pay his debt. So he goes to the man to whom he owes all this money and he begs and he pleads for mercy. The man felt sorry for him and forgave his debt. He gave him mercy. Wow. But look at how the man responded to that mercy. He went out and found a man who owed him $100 and demanded that he pay up. When the man couldn’t repay him, the man beat him up and had him thrown in jail. He showed no mercy at all. When the first man heard about what he did and how he treated that man who owed him so little, he said, “I forgave you. You would think that you would go and forgive the debts of others.” And then he had him thrown in jail. The point is that what we receive from God we need to pass on to others. If you have been loved, cared for, forgiven, if others have been kind and merciful to you, pass it on to somebody else. Mercy and grace is not to be kept. Mercy and grace is to be given away. Who do you need to give away some mercy to today?
– Dr. Tim Thompson