Hi Deborah. This is an interesting take, but my first question would be who then are the tormenters in this parable that he commands the servant to be given over to?
Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant
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Hi Deborah. This is an interesting take, but my first question would be who then are the tormenters in this parable that he commands the servant to be given over to?
@Hidden In Him :
This unmerciful servant was not in the Kingdom of God at this time. He was a faker and his true heart’s intentions were revealed to all in the Kingdom (fellow servants of the Kingdom eventually ratted him out). The same/similar sequence of events and results played out in the wedding feast parable, this faker was also thrown out of the Kingdom. In the talents parable there was a faker that knew not the will of God and considered God a hard man. He also was thrown out of the Kingdom.
All people born owe God a debt for their lives they cannot pay. God’s mercy and grace and of his Son’s life paid this debt. That is why the literal weight of debt described in this parable was so enormous. It cannot be paid by anyone.
A true believer comes the God with true humility and a contrite heart for true forgiveness of his ways and sin, and God accepts him/her.
This servant pretended to do the same and was later found out by his crooked heart. This is why the Kingdom is only populated by pure and righteous hearts.
Further, a true believer who belongs with Christ, forgives a debt by another cheerfully, eventually anyway. It comes from the heart of Christ. The true mark of one that has salvation, in the Kingdom is the forgiveness of an offense, as the spirit of Christ would require it. This wicked servant demonstrated his deceit and his crooked heart when he condemned another true servant of God for owing him. The expression used for how this servant held this person's throat shows the evil in his heart. God placed him outside the Kingdom until he truly repented and became a true servant of God. The tormentors or jailers of his holding place, means he had to wrestle within his own heart to truly get on his knees and beg God for his life, for salvation – to become debt free from sin. If this originally occurred, this servant would not have acted so as he did with this other servant afterwards. Not until he truly repents with God's intervention and approval shall he enter the Kingdom in the proper way. I guess God allowed him some time to open his heart and change his clothes, suitable for the Kingdom. He was most probably then predestined to do this in God's time.
Blessings,
APAK
This unmerciful servant was not in the Kingdom of God at this time. He was a faker and his true heart’s intentions were revealed to all in the Kingdom (fellow servants of the Kingdom eventually ratted him out). The same/similar sequence of events and results played out in the wedding feast parable, this faker was also thrown out of the Kingdom. In the talents parable there was a faker that knew not the will of God and considered God a hard man. He also was thrown out of the Kingdom.
All people born owe God a debt for their lives they cannot pay. God’s mercy and grace and of his Son’s life paid this debt. That is why the literal weight of debt described in this parable was so enormous. It cannot be paid by anyone.
A true believer comes the God with true humility and a contrite heart for true forgiveness of his ways and sin, and God accepts him/her.
This servant pretended to do the same and was later found out by his crooked heart. This is why the Kingdom is only populated by pure and righteous hearts.
Further, a true believer who belongs with Christ, forgives a debt by another cheerfully, eventually anyway. It comes from the heart of Christ. The true mark of one that has salvation, in the Kingdom is the forgiveness of an offense, as the spirit of Christ would require it. This wicked servant demonstrated his deceit and his crooked heart when he condemned another true servant of God for owing him. The expression used for how this servant held this person's throat shows the evil in his heart. God placed him outside the Kingdom until he truly repented and became a true servant of God. The tormentors or jailers of his holding place, means he had to wrestle within his own heart to truly get on his knees and beg God for his life, for salvation – to become debt free from sin. If this originally occurred, this servant would not have acted so as he did with this other servant afterwards. Not until he truly repents with God's intervention and approval shall he enter the Kingdom in the proper way. I guess God allowed him some time to open his heart and change his clothes, suitable for the Kingdom. He was most probably then predestined to do this in God's time.
Blessings,
APAK
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Sorry, but that is not really a Bible teaching. To rescind means to cancel, and that not how it works.
The simpler and more consistent interpretation is found in Scripture: For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you: But if ye forgive not men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses. (Mt 6:14,15)
This would be applicable to those who are already children of God ("your Father"). Christians must forgive others on an ongoing basis, and that is why this truth is embedded in the Lord's Prayer: And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors. (Mt 6:12)
Greetings APAK. If the servant was faking, why did the master forgive Him? The master in this parable is our Lord, and it speaks of a personal exchange happening between the two of them: "26 The servant therefore fell down, and worshipped him, saying, Lord, have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 27 Then the lord of that servant was moved with compassion, and loosed him, and forgave him the debt." This text clearly suggests a relationship was established, does it not? The servant begged him on a very personal level, and the master responded on a personal level, being moved with compassion. They had a relationship. If the Master was being played, it makes our Lord out to be a fool.
I don't think so, Bud. I think that can certainly cause some people problems in accepting the grace of God, but I don't think it's what's being addressed in this parable.
So you are contending then as APAK did that the servant in the parable of the unmerciful servant was not a saved individual... what would be your response to Post #87?
No. I would say (from what we see in the parable) that he was a saved individual with an unforgiving spirit.
How can one(who is truly born from above) not finish the race, when it is The Lord within us, running it.
Okay but at the end of the parable Jesus says that (God) sends that unmerciful servant to prison to be tormented until the debt is paid. That doesnt sound like the fate of a saved person to me.
Waiting on him
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The individual is as all Christians, he owes a debt that can’t be repaid in 10,000 lifetimes. I know there are many on here that see themselves as good dead doers. But the truth of the matter is all you have to do is listen to their posts, it’s not humility it’s false humility. They confuse salvation with sanctification. The tormentors is the worldly. Christ wants the same we all should want, the destruction of the flesh
Waiting on him
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The kingdom comes in power not word. Paul says I’ll see who has this power when I come to you. It’s as simple as that the kingdom has already came.
Waiting on him
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Waiting on him
Well-Known Member
Well said, so much of the focus of the world is on money. True Christians suffer wrong and don’t care because they realize how temporary all of this is.
*facepalm* who is the master and who is the servant in the parable? The master is God, and the servant is either a saved or unsaved man. In response to Enoch111's post:
"No. I would say (from what we see in the parable) that he was a saved individual with an unforgiving spirit."
Does Matthew 18:34-35 sound like what will happen to the saved Christian? Because it doesn't to me. I am only posting what the scripture says here:
In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart."
I agree to a point. Sinners receive according to their works... Reaping what they have sown. But the wages of sin still remains... Death. The second death... The end result after the stripes.Fun thread ( at the moment) hope it can stay that way.
I believe the torment " wailing and gnashing of teeth..and outer darkness....
Is within us, when ( we ,hoping NOT) we see where we could have been, now are in the kingdom compared to where God is... Any separation will be hell to us..
Even if we can hear His voice but not see His face or feel His Presence.
As to duration ...just like the verse ..one beaten with many stripes , one beaten with few ...Luke 12
47 "And that servant, which knew his lord's will, and prepared not himself, neither did according to his will, shall be beaten with many stripes. "
Until someone changes my heart and mind on this...this is where I stand.
KJV Matthew 18
32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
I struggle with the concept that this "wicked servant" is just losing some reward.
KJV Matthew 18
34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So what is the the cost of that which he should pay? In the parable the amount of debt described is ridiculously above and beyond any amount that could possibly be paid back on any servants wage. It is clearly a metaphor for the price we owe God for our rebellion. The wages of sin is death. That is the price of our redemption. The sinner cannot die, pay the price of his sin, and yet be saved without the forgiveness of his Master. The sinner needs a substitute to die in his place... Christ. So also the servant required grace... Paying the debt himself was impossible. Yet the parable states above that he will be tormented until his debt is met. The wages of sin is death thus he is tormented until he dies . This is the argument used against the objection that so called annihilation is too easy.
Sorry Chris. You keep bringing up these contentious issues your going to get contentious answers lol.
32 Then his lord, after that he had called him, said unto him, O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me:
I struggle with the concept that this "wicked servant" is just losing some reward.
KJV Matthew 18
34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him.
So what is the the cost of that which he should pay? In the parable the amount of debt described is ridiculously above and beyond any amount that could possibly be paid back on any servants wage. It is clearly a metaphor for the price we owe God for our rebellion. The wages of sin is death. That is the price of our redemption. The sinner cannot die, pay the price of his sin, and yet be saved without the forgiveness of his Master. The sinner needs a substitute to die in his place... Christ. So also the servant required grace... Paying the debt himself was impossible. Yet the parable states above that he will be tormented until his debt is met. The wages of sin is death thus he is tormented until he dies . This is the argument used against the objection that so called annihilation is too easy.
Sorry Chris. You keep bringing up these contentious issues your going to get contentious answers lol.
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