Adult Mentor: Adult Bible Study: Creation, Forgiveness, and Equality

By R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation

The Adult Mentor is a topical Christian quarterly study guide is for the adult learner and is designed to increase Christian faith and biblical understanding using a variety of learning methods. It is a practical resource for every day Christian living.

• Language: English
• Publisher: R.H. Boyd Publishing Corporation
• Release date: Feb 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781681678283

Book preview

Lesson 1

TO FORGIVE AND BE FORGIVEN

LEARNING SESSION

Would you say you are person with a forgiving heart? That it really does not matter what is done to you or who does it? And that you model what it means to appreciate others for who they are without reservation or hesitation? We all have our faults. But sometimes we tend to forget how much Jesus has looked beyond our faults. As a result, He encourages us to do the same of others. In Matthew 18, Jesus warns His apostles of the need to forgive their fellow sister and brother, since this is something God so readily and habitually does for them. It points to personal reflection and remorse regarding others, illustrating—through Jesus’ parable of the unforgiving servant—the depths of humanity’s hypocrisy in its willingness to accept forgiveness, but not to give it.

EXPOSITION:

I. The Importance of Forgiveness

Jesus had just completed a teaching regarding church discipline. He gave His listeners what appeared to be a three-step plan of approach which intended to honor the integrity of the offender, the offended, and the church as a whole without neglecting the seriousness of the offense (see Matt. 18:15-20). In closing this teaching, Jesus reminded His listeners of the authority given of God to the Church in interpreting the law of God’s Kingdom on earth (see vv. 18-20). Verses 18-20 may be considered sister verses to Matthew 16:19, where Jesus gave Peter the keys to the Kingdom.

LESSON SCRIPTURES:

MATTHEW 18:21-35

DISCUSSION POINTS:

I. The Importance of Forgiveness

II. The Imposition of Not Forgiving

KEY VERSE:

Should you not have had mercy on your fellow slave, as I had mercy on you? (Matthew 18:33, KJV)

Theologians express that the major difference between the two passages is the designation of authority. While Peter may be seen as the sole key holder in 16:19, the Church itself is given the authority in 18:18-20, thus making the passage about binding and loosing parallel to John 20:23: ’If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained’ (NRSV). This is significant to point out because it leads to the essence of our current passage and pericope, while also showing that verses 21-22 double as a pronouncement and introduction.

The word brother (v. 21, KJV) means fellow believer. Following the preceding teaching about church discipline, Peter asks Jesus how often he ought to forgive a fellow believer. Till seven times? asked Peter. Jesus’ response to Peter, ’I say not unto these, until seven times: but, until seventy times seven,’ was not meant to give Peter and other listeners a number by which to keep track and know when to stop forgiving, but to pronounce what Christian forgiveness in community ought to look like. The power of forgiveness can never be justly or fully measured, especially numerical. The number of times one extends forgiveness to another is to not truly extend forgiveness, as 1 Corinthians 13:6 reminds us that love does not keep a record of wrongdoings.

Peter’s question to Jesus in verse 21, then, seems off-center and lacking focus for what forgiveness truly entails, though we can imagine Peter must have assumed the seven times was more than generous. After all, according to rabbinical tradition, an offense was required to be forgiven three times. Jesus’ reply to Peter, however, implied that forgiveness should be unlimited: stop the counting and be prepared to forgive as many times as needed. Jesus pronounces mercy over tradition. Verses 21-22 also act as an introduction to what is next (the parable in verses 23-35).

THEOLOGICAL CONCEPTS:

• To understand the importance of having strong convictions about the capacity to bear a forgiving heart as a principle of life.

• To show that it is essential for one’s spiritual wellbeing that forgiveness is expressed in deed and not merely talk.

Though it still illustrates forgiveness, this parable does not deal with the theme of repeated forgiveness, but rather with the magnitude of divine forgiveness and how it must be applied within the believing community. To give is admirable; to forgive from the heart unlocks the heart of God so that God’s mercy extends far beyond our greatest sin. Jesus told the following parable to help Peter and his fellow apostles understand this heavenly truth.

Through a short earthly story illustrating a servant’s inability to forgive a debt, even after having been forgiven a much larger debt of his own, Jesus provided His listeners an inside look of humankind’s capacity for hypocrisy, as well as our inability to recognize and appreciate what has been done for us. In the end, Jesus warns His disciples of the severe punishment that can befall those who fail to realize and appreciate the abundance of God’s mercy that is shown to them.

II. The Imposition of Not Forgiving

In verses 23-27, there are two things to note. First, the amount the servant owed. Ten thousand talents was enormous. A talent in the Old Testament was a unit of measurement that was used to weigh precious metals like silver and gold. In the New Testament, a talent was a value for money or coins, similar to a dollar bill being a value for money in our present time. The talent, however, represented a rather large sum of money. A single talent equaled roughly about fifteen years’ wages of labor. Such an amount being given in the parable helps to emphasize the magnitude of divine forgiveness.

#WhatIsForgiveness

How are we to forgive others? Jesus taught forgiveness as a divine necessity. Share your views and tag us @rhboydco and use #rhboydco.

Second, note that the king forgave the servant simply because the servant showed humility and asked for mercy. There is no indication that payment arrangements were made, and a contract signed before the servant was forgiven, or that a warning, bidding the servant to