Introduction: Why We Need to Understand Forgiveness

Let’s get started. We are going to be not in Matthew chapter 5 today, but actually in Matthew 18. We’re going to take a little break to help us understand what we have to know to make sense of Jesus’s commands that we were reading. Do you remember last week? What did we talk about? “If you’ve heard it said, ‘Eye for eye, tooth for tooth,’ but I say to you… if somebody smacks you in the cheek, you turn to them the other,” and so on and so forth. And next time we’re together, we’re going to read, “You’ve heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemies,’ but I say to you, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.'”

What has to go on to make something as unnatural as loving your enemies happen? Or that you wouldn’t retaliate at all, you’d actually look out for other people’s good, not defend, not cling to your own rights? What would happen in your heart to make you that kind of person? Jesus says you must be that kind of person. He’s not merely asking you to do something that’s impossible, even though it is impossible. He’s asking you to do something that’s only possible—listen to this—he’s asking you to do something that’s only possible if you have faith in the gospel.

Peter’s Question: How Often Must We Forgive? (Matthew 18:21-22)

So open up your Bibles to Matthew 18, verse 21. This comes right after Jesus is talking about church discipline and restoration – the Matthew 18 process. If somebody sins against you, you go to that person one-on-one, keep it private, and your whole goal in going is to win your brother, right? Your brother sinned against you, and your number one goal is, “How can I win my brother?” Not to your way of thinking, but to repentance, confession. Blessed are the peacemakers, right? You’re not going to hold it against them, you’re not trying to demand justice, but you’re trying to win them. He goes on and talks about the whole process.

And Peter gets it. Peter says, “Okay, the point here is that sinners would live together reconciling through the gospel, that we would forgive each other.” And Peter says, “All right, so how many times if my brother sins against me?” You guys might have heard this. He asks, “How many times do I have to forgive them?” Do you remember what he said? Andrew? He goes, “Seven times.”

Actually, if you think about that… think if somebody sinned against you in the exact same way. They sin against you, and they come back to you and they ask for your forgiveness. You’re like, “You know what? You’re forgiven.” If they do that two times in a row, you might think, “Okay, this is getting silly.” What about three? Same sin? And they come back to you and ask for your forgiveness again? Four? Five? Six times? And Peter’s like, “Man, if they do that and they ask forgiveness seven times…” Peter, that sounds like a lot. That is a lot. Think about it in your life. You’re going to have a hard time, I’m going to have a hard time, really forgiving people one time. But man, if they sin against me, ask for my forgiveness, and then come back and do it again and again and again, seven times?

And Jesus says, “No, I say not seven times, but seventy times seven,” or 77 times, or a lot more than seven. And then he tells a parable. He tells this parable, and the point is it’s actually going to be time without number that you’re going to forgive.

The Problem: Our Focus is On Ourselves

How is that possible? How is that possible? The way that we can be merciful with each other is by getting our eyes off our self, right? Think back to what Jesus said last week. When somebody slaps you in the cheek, what’s on your mind? The slap, right? The offense against you. If somebody sues you and takes your clothes from you, what’s on your mind? “That’s my clothes.” If somebody demands that you go a mile with them—remember what we talked about? You’re out in the fields minding your own business, tending your field, and a Roman soldier comes by and says, “Hey, I need you to carry this, go a mile.” What’s on your mind? “Hey, you’re ruining my day.” Or if somebody says, “Hey, can I borrow some money? Can I have some of that food?” What’s naturally on your mind is, “That’s my food.” And if somebody sins against you, what’s on your mind? Not them, but “You sinned against me.”

The problem in all of this is that we have a big view of ourselves, and we have our mind on ourselves and the way that we’ve been sinned against. Jesus says, “The only way that you’re going to do what I command here, the only way that you’re going to do what I command in forgiving and being selfless with your stuff and not demanding justice, is to actually remember the way that you’ve been forgiven by God.”

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant: An Unpayable Debt (Matthew 18:23-27)

And so we’re going to read that in Matthew 18, starting in verse 21.

Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” And Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven.” And then he gives an illustration of what he means. It’s like, if you’re putting limits on the amount of forgiveness that you will give, you’re thinking of forgiveness all wrong. We need to listen to what Jesus says.

So he says, “For this reason…” For what reason? I think because we naturally want to put limits on forgiveness. “…the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king…” And so the point of this is merciful canceling of debt. Jesus tells a story. I like pictures when I tell stories, so we’re going to have some pictures of this.

Jesus says, “For this reason the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his slaves. When he had begun to settle them, one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought to him.” All right, so you and I don’t really know what a talent is. A talent was a form of money, and it was the total amount of money that a worker would make in their entire life—20 years of working, more or less. So if you were to think about what he just said: the king began to settle, and a slave came to him who owed him 10,000 talents.

That’s crazy. How much money is this? If a servant owed a few days’ wages, right? If he came, let’s put in our money, man, the king brought a servant to him and he owed a thousand bucks. This is a slave, he doesn’t make a lot of money. He owed a thousand bucks, you’d be like, “Oh man, how’s he going to pay that back?” What if he owed like $100,000? $500,000? You might be like, “Man, that’s going to be really rough.” But maybe if you put your mind to it, you get your family, you make some good investments, you might figure out a way to pay that back.

But this is an amount that is unfathomably, unimaginably large, and that’s the point. So it would take this guy, if he worked 40 years of his life, it might take him 5,000 lifetimes to pay this back. One helpful commentator said 10,000 talents is 60 million denarii—that’s going to come in, that’s going to be important later. So that’s about 60 million denarii. That’s 300 tons of silver. Like, think about this one man: 300 piles of 2,000 pounds of silver is what this man owes. It’s impossibly high. It’s outside of anyone’s grasp. Like, you and I don’t think of numbers that big.

So 10,000 was the largest number for which a Greek term exists. I don’t think Jesus is saying, “Okay, there’s a number that you might be able to figure out, right? There’s a finite number here. If he just puts his mind to it, he’s going to be able to pay it off.” Jesus is actually saying, “Hey, this is the biggest number we have in Greek. He owes that many of the biggest amount of money that we have in Greek.” Like, in the Roman world, a talent was the biggest unit of money. And so he says, “We have the biggest number that we can say, with the biggest unit of money that we can say.” Basically, the point is, it’s a number beyond human calculation.

Our Situation: The Reality of Our Debt Before God

So come to grips with that. You have a king sitting here and a man looking at a debt that he cannot possibly pay. This would be a list that would just go on and on and on and on.

Right? You might be tempted to stop listening at this point and say, “All right, the premise of this story is completely ridiculous. How would one man rack up debt like that?” Uh, but I need you and I need me to pause and realize that this is not a hypothetical story. This is not a ridiculous story. This is a story about me and you. This is real. And the 10,000 talent number underestimates the horrible plight that you and I have. It underestimates it. That’s a finite number you can count that high.

We find ourselves facing a debt so big that it doesn’t take 5,000 lifetimes to pay it back; it would take an eternity of lifetimes to not even begin to touch it. We find ourselves having sinned against a holy God. It doesn’t matter whether you believe this to be true or not, this is reality. This is the situation that you and I face. And we will stand before this judge, and every single sin—each one of them earning us an eternity of debt—every single sin has been recorded. God is a good judge. Colossians talks about a list of debts that we owe, a certificate of debts with legal demands against us.

That debt has been earned by you. The debt has been earned by me. And it was real, it is real. It’s not hypothetical, it’s not an overreaction, and it’s nothing that you and I can pay. You can’t undo it. If you say, “Oh man, if I just try hard enough, I do enough good things…” you can’t pay this off. And yet, that’s what every religion, every single religion tries to do. You and I know who God is. Everybody who’s been, who’s ever existed, knows that there’s a God. His divine power, his eternal nature have been clearly shown through the things that have been created. And they know that they don’t live up to God’s standard, that they’ve sinned against him. We don’t even live up to our own standard.

And even in that, you and I, all of humanity, we suppress the truth and unrighteousness. We reject a God that we’re supposed to worship. We live for ourselves. We sin against him. And religion says, “Maybe if I do enough things, say enough prayers, do the right thing, I’m going to be able to pay this debt off.” You can’t. That’s what every single religion does. They either ignore the debt or try to pay it on their own. Some forms that call themselves Christianity try to do that. They say, “If I do enough good works, if I pray the right prayer, or maybe if I just believe hard enough, God won’t hold this debt against me.”

Our Efforts are Insufficient

Honestly, those efforts… I remember a few years ago, it was a lot of years ago now, one of my kids, he wanted me to work less, had some coins, some pennies, it probably was like 26 cents, came up and said, “Dad, maybe this money that I have will help pay off the house so that you don’t have to go to work.” Right? And I looked, and that was a really sweet thought, but 26 cents compared to the debt that I owe on the house and the bills, it wasn’t even going to make a dent. And those 26 cents were far more substantial than our good works and our efforts before the Lord to pay off the debt we owe. In fact, our efforts, if we do that, they only add to our debt. They only add to God’s righteous judgment against you. They’re filthy rags that minimize the reality of what we have done against God.

You and I do not have the currency that’s needed to pay our debt. There’s only one thing that can pay that, right? We will spend an eternity in hell righteously if we try to bear that debt ourselves. Every single one of you owe this eternity trying to pay it off, and you won’t even begin. There’s only one way to pay that sin off, and it is the precious blood of Christ. It’s Jesus’s righteousness.

The King’s Compassion: Debt Forgiven (Matthew 18:26-27)

And so the servant here… it said the slave fell to the ground. Right? When the king began to settle accounts, verse 24, “one who owed him 10,000 talents was brought.” “But since he did not have the means to repay”—you and I don’t have the means to repay—”his lord commanded him to be sold, along with his wife and children and all that he had, and repayment to be made.” And that’s silly. Like, how is selling them going to pay it off? It won’t even begin. But at least it’s justice to be had, right? This man owes a debt he can’t repay it.

“So the slave fell to the ground, prostrated himself before him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, I will repay you everything.'” “But the Lord of that slave felt compassion and”—instead of saying, “Okay, go ahead and try to repay me,” what did he say?—”released him and forgave his debt.”

So imagine the joy of this man. Imagine the joy of this man receiving the good news that his master had compassion on him, forgiving him his debt. Right? That list of demands is still there. The debt is real. And the master said, “It’s not yours anymore.” The king said, “It’s not yours to pay. I forgive you. I release you from that debt.” He didn’t just say, “Okay, I’ll give you some more time.” He offered to wipe the man’s slate clean. This says almost nothing about the man, except that he begged for mercy. Says everything about the king. Unmerited mercy, unmerited grace. Right? There was nothing that that slave could boast in. When he goes out to his fellow slaves, he couldn’t say, “Man, I’m a good negotiator. Look what I did. I talked the king into this thing.” He could just say, “What a generous master, what a generous king.” He goes home and tells his wife, “Hey, you’re not going to get sold into slavery. I don’t have to pay that debt anymore.” “Why? What happened?” “The king just forgave it.”

Our Debt Nailed to the Cross (Colossians 2:13-14)

A day should not have gone by in that servant’s life when he didn’t marvel at the king’s generosity. Remember what I said? This is not just a hypothetical story. This is a story told in response to Peter to help us know our situation.

Tell you what, it wasn’t just that he ignored the debt. We learn about God that he doesn’t just ignore our sin. He doesn’t say, “Don’t worry about it, nobody needs to pay.” Christian, Paul writes of the day our master did the same thing for us, but on an unimaginably larger scale and at an infinitely higher cost. Open your Bible to Colossians chapter 2.

Colossians 2. So if you’re in Matthew, go forward: Mark, Luke, John, Acts, Romans, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Ephesians, Colossians. So Colossians 2, verse 13:

“And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him,”—this is where I want you to focus on—”having forgiven us all of our trespasses, how did he do it? By canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross.”

There was a very real list of debts. Every single one of them had to be dealt with. He didn’t just nail it to the cross; he actually placed every one of those sins on his Son. Everyone. And Jesus did in a few hours on the cross, as God poured out his wrath on him, what would have taken an eternity to pour out on me and you, if you believe. The debt that we had was unimaginably large, and God said, “If you turn to him in faith, forgiven. At great cost to me.” And he doesn’t just say to his slaves, “All right, don’t worry about the debt.” He actually then takes slaves who are his enemies and adopts us as his children, showing us mercy upon mercy, grace upon grace, undeserved favor.

He didn’t write off the debt pretending it didn’t exist. His holy justice wouldn’t allow that. Rather, he paid it with his own Son’s blood. Right? The only currency that counts is righteousness, true righteousness. That’s Jesus. God made him who knew no sin to be sin so that we might become the righteousness of God in him. He takes our sin, forgives it because he placed it on Jesus, and takes Jesus’s righteousness and places that on us.

Living in Light of God’s Mercy

Every moment of our lives needs to be lived in response to this. Just like every single moment of this slave’s life, this servant’s life, should be lived just saying, “Oh man, another day I don’t deserve. I should be in prison forever. I should be bearing the weight of my debt, and I don’t have to.” Every day was a day of mercy. We’re going to learn about that next time when God says, “Love your enemies like your Father who makes his sun rise on the just and the unjust.” Right? He paid what we could never do in 5,000 lifetimes or 5,000 billion trillion lifetimes.

So now the answer to Peter’s question is obvious, right? How many times should I forgive? Seven times? What about 490 times? What about 5,000 times? The point isn’t, “Oh, cap it, because at that point, you know, things are getting ridiculous. You should demand justice. You shouldn’t forgive now.” What’s the point? The point is, in comparison to the debt that you have been forgiven before God, nothing that anybody else does is even comparable. Think about that word “comparable.” When you have two things that are just totally dissimilar, like you have a cruise ship and an ant, those things are silly to compare, right? How many ants can you fit inside a cruise ship? The question gets just silly to ask, but at least you can answer it. Right? How many times does somebody have to sin against you for it to finally equal the amount of sin that God has forgiven you? Especially when you think of their sin against you was person against person; your sin against God was creature against Creator, finite against infinite, sinner against holy, person against judge.

So the point isn’t, “Hey, how many times should I forgive?” or “Hey, I need to make sure I don’t get taken advantage of.” But the point is, remember the cross and God’s lavish mercy.

Saving Faith vs. Dead Faith

Do you believe this? Do you actually believe that you owe God a debt? Your belief doesn’t make it true, and your lack of belief doesn’t make it not true. This is objectively true. This is reality. But you must come to grips with it and believe it.

And this helps us understand what saving faith is. Right? How are you saved? Not every person receives grace. How do we receive grace? You need to know the answer. How do you receive grace? And the answer is: by faith. Everybody say it. How do you receive grace? By faith. Faith alone. It’s not of works, so that no man can boast. This is clear across scripture. We are saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. It’s not of works that no man can boast.

The king didn’t say, “Hey, you know, try real hard for a week and I’ll let you off,” or “You know what? If you just work for your whole life, I won’t hold it against you.” He didn’t base his forgiveness at all in the man. God doesn’t base his forgiveness of us at all in us. He gives it to us only on the basis of faith. So, is faith a work? No, it’s apart from works that no man may boast. And yet, faith will always be shown by works.

This man, when he goes out, you would expect a man who received this much grace, if he went out and one of his fellow slaves owed him a hundred bucks, he’d say, “Oh yeah, don’t worry about it. I just got forgiven 10,000 talents.” And he’s like, “Yeah, that’s not even worth comparing.” Right? That’s what he should do. But if he goes out and holds his fellow slave to his debts, what is he revealing? He’s not living in light of the mercy that he’s been shown.

And if God has shown us such love, if this is true and you believe it—that God took your infinite debt, nailed it to the cross—if you believe that to be true, if you believe what God says about himself and the debt that you owe, and you believe that your debt has been forgiven, you will live differently. You will actually love others. That’s what First John says. First John teaches you will actually forgive others. And if you don’t, that’s the kind of faith that James talks about. That’s a dead faith. Right? “Oh yeah, I believe, I believe in God.” And he goes, “Yeah, good job, so do the demons.” And at least they shudder. If you say, “I believe in God, I believe in the gospel, I believe all of that is true,” but it doesn’t affect your life, that’s not the kind of belief, the kind of faith that saves. You have to put yourself in this story. You have to know who you are. This is us. If you have faith, the one who’s been forgiven much… how do you know that you believe? You forgive much.

The Unthinkable Response: The Wicked Slave Demands Payment (Matthew 18:28-30)

But Jesus goes on in the parable. He goes on and shows what should be unthinkable. What did that slave do? That slave went out, and he found one of his fellow slaves, and he was merciless. He demanded justice. He went out—look at his short little list, he didn’t have this great long list, he just had a short, tiny little list, not insignificant.

“He found one of his fellow slaves who owed him a hundred denarii, and he seized him and he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay back what you owe.’ So his fellow slave fell to the ground and began to plead with him, saying, ‘Have patience with me, I will repay you.'” And he should have been like, “That was what I told the king, and he forgave me.”

“But he was unwilling and he went and threw him in prison until he should pay back what he owed.”

The Application: Forgiving As We Have Been Forgiven

If this slave had generously extended mercy to his fellow slave… uh, could he have said, “Hey, I earned my master’s mercy”? Denarii, by the way, was a day’s wage. So this is a hundred days’ wages. So like, think about in a year, if you make $100,000, this isn’t insignificant. This is like a $30,000 debt. That’s not small, right? That would cost him something to just forgive it, right? To forgive $30,000, that would cost him. He’s not owed nothing. There’s an actual offense here, there’s an actual debt. But if this slave… the only right answer for the one who’d been shown the 10,000 talents of mercy, the only right answer should be, “Oh yeah, mercy. I forgive you.” Or at least, “I give you time.” But it’s in no way “Pay what you owe.”

We must never say… He must… It is absolutely incongruous for him to say, “Pay what you owe.” The only right response would have been forgiveness. And if you’re a Christian, remember God’s incalculable mercy towards you. It would be appropriate for you to consider if there’s any part of your life that you’re not living in light of the gospel.

That question is revealing for me: is there any part of your life where you’re like, “Yeah, I can’t forgive that. I don’t want to forgive that. I demand…” Do you remember last week? “I demand my rights. You sinned against me,” or “That’s mine. I’m not giving up my stuff for you.”

The perspective that we obtain in the shadow of the cross is priceless. Right? Our debt, our certificate of debt with its list of demands, nailed to the cross and has “canceled” written right across it. And we know the cost that that took. We remember God’s grace. That needs to affect every single thing that you and I do, if we say that we believe it.

If somebody insults you, what should you do? Retaliate? Insult them back? No. You’ve been forgiven, right? Even if that’s justice, they sinned against you. No, turn the other cheek. What if somebody demands your help? Well, give them more than they asked for. What if somebody pleads for mercy, ask for your forgiveness? Give it to them. Love them. Love doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. Right? Christians, they will know that we are his disciples by our love one for another. What does love do? It doesn’t keep a record of wrongs. That makes sense. It wouldn’t keep a record of wrongs because we know what happened to our record of wrongs: wiped out. We could never say, “Oh yeah, but that wrong was really bad.” You know what? You and I will be sinned against in some really bad ways. Remember, this is not an insignificant debt, that’s like 30,000 bucks. That’s a lot of money, 100 days’ wages. It didn’t matter if it was 100 days’ wages or a thousand days’ wages or 10,000 days’ wages. It’s not even worth comparing to the debt that had been paid on the cross.

We have to remember who we are. This is what the author of Hebrews says in Hebrews 12, in this race, as you try to endure and you forgive, he says, “In your struggle against sin, you haven’t yet endured to the point of shedding blood.” Who did? Jesus. And he is so committed to forgive your sin and free you from its power that if you confess your sin, he is faithful and just to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness. And he is faithful and he is just because he went to the cross and he paid every last one.

The Danger of Demanding Justice Instead of Showing Mercy

How could you imagine a response to somebody else that says, “No, mine,” or “No, I won’t forgive”? Instead, we say, “Everything I have is all God’s. You can’t out-sin the way that I sinned against God, so if you sin against me, that’s just an opportunity to show you mercy, the same kind of mercy that my Father gave me.” That’s not easy. It hurts. It’s hard. But it’s possible if you keep your eyes on the cross.

This is why every day, if you are a Christian—every day—and if you’re like, “I don’t know if I’m a Christian,” well, if you want to be, do what a Christian would do. A Christian would rehearse this gospel to themselves. They’d remind themselves of the debt that they’d owed God, and they would plead with God, “Forgive this.” And then they’d act like it. So if you’re like, “I don’t know if I’m a Christian, but I want to be,” okay, well do what a Christian would do. Say, “God, forgive me.” And then go and forgive your neighbor. You don’t earn salvation by forgiving your neighbor, but you demonstrate that you believe.

And what if you go out and you realize, “Oh no, I wasn’t loving to my friend”? What does a Christian do in that place? You don’t try to make it better, say, “Well God, I’ll make it up to you.” Oh no, well, there’s another sin for you to forgive. You confess it, and he is faithful and just to forgive you and to cleanse you of that one too. If you sin, you have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous, the one who died, says, “God, I paid for that one too. Don’t hold it against him. He’s trusting you. She’s trusting you. She’s trusting me for grace. You already paid that one, remember?” He’s like, “Yeah, I love him. I sent you to the cross, Jesus, to die. So we’ll forgive that one too.”

The King’s Judgment on the Unforgiving (Matthew 18:31-35)

So as he pled, the wicked slave had him thrown into jail, said, “Nope, I’m not forgiving.” And so then he showed, that wicked slave said, “Nope, I demand justice. I demand justice.” That’s what you and I do when we won’t forgive. We say, “No, I want justice.” Have you ever said inside, “That’s not fair. I want fair”? You and I do not want fair. We do not want justice. Right? That’s what it looks like if you hold your friend, your neighbor, your sibling, anybody else to “pay what you owe, I won’t forgive you.” And God says, “Okay, if you want justice, I’ll give you justice.”

And that’s where he goes. “So his fellow slaves saw what happened, and they were deeply grieved, and they came and reported to their lord what had happened. Then summoning him, his lord said to him, ‘You wicked slave! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave in the same way I had mercy on you?’ And his lord, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he should repay all that he owed him.” How long would that take?

Jesus’ Warning: Forgive from the Heart

Jesus said, “My heavenly Father will do the same to you if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.” That list of debt… he goes, “I want mercy.” Or “I don’t want mercy, I want justice.” The debt’s there, and he goes, “All right, you’re going to pay it. If you want justice, I’ll give you justice.”

So Jesus ends with a warning that those who don’t forgive from the heart will face judgment. So everybody here, what you do with the opportunity to forgive, what you do with the opportunity to show love, reveals faith or reveals a lack of it. You’re not forgiven because you forgive; you forgive because you’ve been forgiven.

The Command: Love and Forgive Because He First Loved Us (1 John 4:19-21)

1 John 4:19 says, “We love because he first loved us.” And if anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he’s a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this is the commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother, and also his enemy.

So the faithless heart says, “Mercy for me, justice for you.” God says, “No. If you demand justice, no mercy for you.” Instead, because God showed his love for us in this, that while we were his enemies, Christ died for us. Right? John 3:16 says what? “God loved the world in this way, that he gave his only Son, that whoever would believe in him wouldn’t perish but would have everlasting life.” Believe. Believe. Just plead with the Lord and you’ll have everlasting life.

You’re sitting here. Which are you going to choose? “Hey, I want to try to pay off my list, and I want to hold other people to pay their list off against me”? Or, “God, will you forgive me?” It’s that simple. It is that simple. And it must change… if you plead with God for mercy, it must change everything in your life. You don’t just add a little bit of Jesus or add a little bit of church on Sunday or some religion or do some good things. All of that is just silly, absolutely foolish, when you realize the reality of which slave you are. Instead, you must turn to God in repentance and faith, say, “God, have mercy on me, the sinner.”

Be Kind and Forgiving, As God Forgave You (Ephesians 4:32)

Ephesians 4:32 says, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another…” You guys know what the next part is? You should have this memorized. “…even as God in Christ forgave you.” Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another because if you’re nice enough, maybe God will forgive you? No. “…just as God in Christ forgave you.”

So get your eyes on the cross when you’re sinned against. Get your eyes off yourself and get them on the cross. Every morning when you wake up, what you need to see more than anything isn’t the stuff ahead of you on your day, but you need to see God’s love for you on the cross. Open up your Bible first thing in the morning, see who God is. That’s why we say, “What does this reveal about God? How must this affect me?” Think of the answer to that today: This reveals God’s mercy, and it must affect everything.

Conclusion: Preach the Gospel to Yourself Daily

Never quit preaching the gospel to yourself, living out its implications, especially with others through love and forgiveness. So let’s go to your discussion groups.