"Forgiveness is a gospel issue"
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. Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?' Then the angry king sent the man to prison to be tortured until he had paid his entire debt.
"That's what my heavenly Father will do to you if you refuse to forgive your brothers and sisters from your heart." (Matthew 18:32-35 NLT)
What should be our motive as believers for obedience toward God? Why should we strive to be a good spouse? Be a good employee? Be honest? Love our neighbor? And, as this passage addresses, forgive?
There are many possible answers to this. Our motive could be because it's the right thing to do. We love our spouse because it's right. We love our neighbor because God says so. And if we are not careful we can easily find ourselves slipping into moralism. Where we do what we do for God because it's right or moral or godly or to please God, etc.
This isn't inherently wrong but one doesn't need to be a follower of Jesus to exhibit these behaviors. Mormons are extremely moral but do not know Jesus. They have good family values & love others. So what's the difference?
In this passage, the servant here that is forgiven millions refuses to forgive thousands. And the reason he is given for forgiving is not because it's right or because it helps his relationships. He is told he should have forgiven because of how much he himself was forgiven.
Jesus here is illustrating the gospel. The motive for our forgiveness of each other is Jesus' forgiveness of us. We forgive because he first forgave us. We love because he first loved us. We love our spouse because he has loved us as the ultimate mate. We serve because we have been served by him.
At the center of our lives & behaviors must be the gospel & the example of Jesus. This is our motive & our heart's reason for waking in obedience.
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