Parable Of The Unmerciful Servant

[Mayflower]

@Hidden In Him, from o.p I don't believe God is an indian giver, no.

I am curious, because in verse 25, the servant was going to be sold along with his family. But after he doesn't forgive his fellow servant, the king turned him over to the tormentors.

The servant isnt given over to another master...but I think the tormentors are more inward agony from unforgiveness. Unforgiveness does eat you up, especially after having been forgiven a great debt.

I got some reading to do here. I just found this thread.

 

[Mayflower]

I wonder if "with tormentors in prison until the debt is paid" is the person's debt the unfaithful servant wouldn't forgive.

 

[Stranger]

Greetings all. My beliefs on this parable may bother some, if not many, but I only seek to interpret and teach the word for what it says.

Specifically, I believe this parable teaches that those who do not walk in forgiveness will have their forgiveness from God rescinded. This interpretation seems patently obvious to me, based on the internal context.

But if you disagree, what is your interpretation of the meaning behind the unmerciful servant being given over to the tormentors for not forgiving his fellow servant? One argument I've found so far is that "if we do not forgive others, we are not forgiven," which I believe is intended to protect the Once saved, Always saved position by teaching that anyone who is truly saved will always forgive. But I'm not sure that bears out in real life. I think a Christian still has the ability to be unforgiving if they want to, and many are. Others profess that Jesus did not mean "tormentors" literally, or that this parable does not apply to Christians. But I don't think those interpretations hold water either.

Please share how you interpret this parable, and what you believe the words "servant" and "tormentors" are referring to in this parable.

I will post it in full below, and please don't let this thread become a contentious debate. I'd like to discuss this with some spiritual maturely if at all possible.

Thanks in advance for all replies.
Hidden In Him
________________________

21 Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times? 22 Jesus saith unto him, I say not unto thee, Until seven times: but, Until seventy times seven. 23 Therefore is the kingdom of heaven likened unto a certain king, which would take account of his servants. 24 And when he had begun to reckon, one was brought unto him, which owed him ten thousand talents. 25 But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made. 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. 28 But the same servant went out, and found one of his fellowservants, which owed him an hundred pence: and he laid hands on him, and took him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest. 29 And his fellow servant fell down at his feet, and besought him, saying, Have patience with me, and I will pay thee all. 30 And he would not: but went and cast him into prison, till he should pay the debt. 31 So when his fellow servants saw what was done, they were very sorry, and came and told unto their lord all that was done. 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: 33 Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee? 34 And his lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors, till he should pay all that was due unto him. 35 So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses. (Matthew 18:21-35)

(Matt. 18:1-14) is a warning from Christ to not offend any who are children of God.

Then In (Matt. 18:15-20) instruction is given to the church on how to handle offenses by one Christian to another. And in (Luke 17:1-4) it is added that the one doing the offending is to repent. If he does not repent, then forgiveness is not possible.

But of course Peter wants to know how many times he must forgive others, to which Christ basically said, every time. (Matt. 18:21-35) And then Christ explains why. It is because God has to constantly forgive the believers sins. We want our sins forgiven by God, (1 John 1:9) so we come and confess them and God is faithful and just to forgive them. He is faithful to forgive them until we refuse to forgive another brothers sins against us.

Understand, our sins are already paid for. Eternity is our home. This is talking about our walk with the Lord here and now. But if in your walk a brother offends you, and he seeks repentance for that and yet you will not forgive him, then the next time you sin, which won't be very long, then God will not forgive you when you come seeking forgiveness. What does that mean? It means God will bring certain judgments against you for your sin. He will not forgive it, you get to pay for it. Just like you are making the one who offended you pay for his.

The tormentors can be whatever God so decides. He knows what to use that will have the best affect upon each believer. And, it always seems to be the pleasure of God to put you in someway in the same situation that the other believer is in whom you would not forgive. In other words He let's us know how it feels.

Not a loss of salvation. But it certainly disturbs our walk with Him.

Stranger

 

[Hidden In Him]

The tormentors is the worldly. Christ wants the same we all should want, the destruction of the flesh

Tormentors is the worldly... Let me try and work my head around this one and see if it fits...

Ok, you appear to be having as the "debts" in this parable the acts of pride that we commit then, correct?

Maybe you should break down what each thing in the parable represents, since this is a different application and interpretation altogether.

 

[Hidden In Him]

No. I would say (from what we see in the parable) that he was a saved individual with an unforgiving spirit.

I haven't read the rest of the posts yet, but by this you would be saying that the tormentors are what then?

 

[Hidden In Him]

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.

Never responded to this, Helen. I do believe in the concept of being "tormented" by ones sins after the Holy Ghost comes upon us. Only in this parable the servants represent real people, so to be consistent the tormentors likely would as well.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Sorry Chris. You keep bringing up these contentious issues your going to get contentious answers lol.

I knew I'd be getting all sorts of answers, LoL.

How about if you break down what everything in the parable represents for me. This is another one I'd rather wait to comment on until I know exactly what you are saying.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

Only those who overcome are clothed... Those who do not overcome are blotted out from the book of life. I can only ascertain from this that our salvation is conditional, and our forgiving others is one of those conditions.

Conditional at John 3:7-8
[7] Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. [8] The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Do they have to be anything/anyone in particular? It's a parable, not an allegory where every detail is symbolic of something.

Ah. Here we have a strong disagreement on interpretive method. I am a firm believer that when the Lord used a parable He was accounting for everything in it having symbolic meaning. It's ok if you disagree, but you and I would never come to agreement on many of the parables if this were your approach. Like I said, I am a FIRM believer that He used symbolism that was exacting in what it represented; ALL of it.

One might as well ask who or what is the donkey in the parable of the Good Samaritan - it adds colour to the story, but has no special significance.

I know that illustration is described as a parable, but if it is to be classified as such (I'm not sure it is), He is using a story about literal people rather than using symbolism. Different thing.

But if you insist, then I would suggest they are bitterness and hate.

This is a position similar to what others are presenting. My problem with it is that it presents the servants as real human beings yet the tormentors as an abstract, which seems to me to be an inconsistency. But again, depending on your approach that might not be a problem. But it is for me.

 

[Hidden In Him]

if in this case, God knew his heart and still gave him forgiveness initially. This would be incorrect. Remember the parable is a crude picture of how the Kingdom of God operates. The Owner of the servants is not really God who knows the heart automatically...I hope you get my drift.

Ok, BIG problems with this post, LoL. APAK, this deals again with what I was discussing with Deborah. Our approach to how the parables should be interpreted pre-determines how we interpret them. You may think I am being too strict, but I think you are being far too loose.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Corinth had an individual committing some ugly sins and Paul told them to hand him over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, same thing. The tormentors is this world system. Fear hath torment.

Ok, from this post I understand your position a little better, and it's interesting. But again, I would need to see an entire breakdown of what you interpret each piece of symbolism to represent.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Blessings in Christ Jesus. We war against these things daily, even though the war has already been won. Each day, is like words written in a book, of which we will give account. And each day we are driven to our knees to ask for forgiveness to that which we did not want to do, or failed to do. And all of these things He removes(For He is just to forgive) from the pages of our book. We are judged and give account daily to Him and to Him alone. In the end, we pass from death unto Life, eternal life. And when our book is opened, all that remains is what He did through us as true sons and daughters. All else is washed away by The Blood Of The Lamb.

Greetings, GTW27. This presupposes that the sins of the servant were repented of, which the parable of the unmerciful servant doesn't really suggest.

And to the Op I say, The King of Mercies dwells in us, so how can we not be merciful. Those who show no mercy shall receive no mercy. And how can one not know who the tormentors are? Do they not wage wars on us day and night?

You'll have to forgive me here, but I honestly don't know who you are suggesting the tormentors are here, LoL. Maybe it's just my old age (I'm 54), but if you could spell it out for me I would appreciate it.

Blessings in Christ, and thanks for your response.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Parables must be accepted for what they are. They illustrate spiritual truths. Those with an unforgiving spirit will definitely be tormented internally. People who hold grudges also alter their internal chemistry, and have medical and health problems.

This parable presents an actual debt. In terms of today's money, one talent would have been worth anywhere from US$100,000 to US$ 840,000. Let's say $100,000. Multiply that by 10,000 and that is $1,000,000,000 (one billion). That is a huge debt by any standard. But it is meant to illustrate our sin debt, which does not have a monetary value.

What the Lord was teaching Christians (through Peter's question about forgiveness) is that if God has totally forgiven us our sin debt because of Christ, we cannot -- and must not -- hold grudges with an unforgiving spirit. And if we do, we shall be tormented internally until we give that up. This man's sin debt was forgiven, thus he would have been a saved individual. But he was clearly walking in the flesh by holding grudges.

Thanks for a very clear answer. Those who actually attempt to break down parables word for word are in the strong minority, and I appreciate you as an interpreter for this.

Now about your answer, I am fully in agreement with this as a principle that takes place in the believer's life. I believe it is what John meant when he said that the believer "cannot" sin. The Holy Spirit will convict him relentlessly until he repents of it. But my problem with this being the interpretation of the parable is still this, and I have already mentioned it to others who are taking similar positions: This interpretation of who the servants and tormentors are has you switching from literals to abstracts; the servants are human beings, whereas the tormentors are internal guilts and sufferings created by sin. It holds water in other respects, but the interpretation of tormentors as internal sufferings falls through on this point. It is similar to the story of the rich man and Lazarus. If the Lord was not teaching on the existence of a literal Hell, then why was He alluding to it so obviously in a parable? Likewise here, if the Lord was not referring to demonic tormentors - and he uses the Greek word Βασανιστής here for tormenters, from the same word group used when it says the rich man "lifted up his eyes being in torment" in Hell - then why was he using language so closely associated with the eternal torments that go on in Hades?

 

[Hidden In Him]

Been thinking and maybe it hasn’t been taken into consideration that when the Lord spoke this parable it was before His death and resurrection. There was no mercy. Man did not know mercy nor could man give it.

This interpretation would convert the entire parable over to being a teaching on man's judgment... the problem there would be that He starts the parable by saying, "the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king..." He's teaching on what He himself as the King of Heaven will do to those who will not forgive, so I'm not sure that interpretation would hold up, Victory.

Blessings in Christ.

 

[Hidden In Him]

I don't see the true believer losing salvation in Scripture. Plenty of verses to support eternal security. There are also plenty of verses to warn against presumption among those who profess, but live carelessly.

I think you have to be careful here, Farouk. Certainly there are a number of verses that suggest eternal security, but if you approach this parable from the assumption that it is without question true you may be undermining your own ability to read it for what it is actually saying.

 

[Hidden In Him]

Doesn't it say that he was thrown into prison and tormented until he paid the debt in full (something he could not do)?

Yes, and this would be the one thing I admit that even my current interpretation finds a little problematic. The saying could suggest that the servant could actually repay his debt in prison, but then that could be the way we interpret prison compared to the way they operated prisons in NT times. I don't think anybody made any monetary gains in prison back then, so the implication would have to be IMO that the Lord was saying, "Until he can pay the debt out of his existing savings, he is to be tormented." This would coincide well with the fact that the debt he owed was seemingly insurmountable. And if it represented our sin debt, it would be impossible to pay it under any circumstances.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

This interpretation would convert the entire parable over to being a teaching on man's judgment... the problem there would be that He starts the parable by saying, "the kingdom of heaven is likened unto a certain king..." He's teaching on what He himself as the King of Heaven will do to those who will not forgive, so I'm not sure that interpretation would hold up, Victory.

Blessings in Christ.

Confused then. Didn’t He set up servants and when He came they were not doing as the Lord had commanded? No flesh was doing as commanded. What is the tree, the root the branches are cut off from and can be grafted back into if they no longer remain in unbelief? Right before the parable He speaks on if a part offended “cut it off”. If an eye offends “pluck it out”. I get what you are saying about all the warnings throughout scripture but once one is born of God and a child of God ...born Spiritually then I’m not convinced God as their Father, abandons His Children born of His Spirit. All that considering one can be “unborn” of God accomplishes is doubt, lack of trust in Him, and is destructive to faith rather than edifying. Had any children been born of God, born Spiritually from above at the time of the parable. You at least agree the master is not the same? So still stand, not firmly, at He was talking to flesh still under the works of the Law and the impact of no man could ever fulfill all the Law required. Did come across this verse yesterday which caused a pause also, 1 Peter 3:9 Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

If the Lord was not teaching on the existence of a literal Hell, then why was He alluding to it so obviously in a parable? Likewise here, if the Lord was not referring to demonic tormentors - and he uses the Greek word Βασανιστής here for tormenters, from the same word group used when it says the rich man "lifted up his eyes being in torment" in Hell - then why was he using language so closely associated with the eternal torments that go on in Hades?

1 John 4:17-18
[17] Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. [18] There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.

 

[Hidden In Him]

You at least agree the master is not the same?

I'm of the belief that the master here is Jesus, and the parable here refers forward to how He will judge His servants, like Peter, in the coming kingdom if they do not forgive from the heart.

I get what you are saying about all the warnings throughout scripture but once one is born of God and a child of God ...born Spiritually then I’m not convinced God as their Father, abandons His Children born of His Spirit. All that considering one can be “unborn” of God accomplishes is doubt, lack of trust in Him, and is destructive to faith rather than edifying.

Let me show you another passage where the Lord warned the apostles about something similar:

42 Watch therefore: for you know not at what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes. 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:42-51)

This warning was given to His disciples. If they abused His household, i.e. the saints of God, through their positions of power in the church, He was warning them that when He returned He would cut them asunder, and appoint them their portions with the hypocrites, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In other words, they would be cast into Hell, for they had been given extremely great responsibility in Christ, and to whom much is given much is expected.

Now, what the warnings in these parables are simply trying to accomplish is to keep His disciples from walking in evil. The parable of the unmerciful servant was addressed to them as well, and Peter asked about "What if my brother offends me. How many times should I forgive him?" Well, the entire church was "his brother," and undoubtably multitudes in the church went on to offend him. But if he and the other disciples walked in unforgiveness, this would have inevitably led to them starting to abuse the church.

But I will grant you one thing, Victory. There is such a thing as Christian leaders bearing a greater responsibility (James 3:1), so maybe the Lord's expectations regarding them are a little more stringent than the typical believer. But I still wouldn't risk my eternity banking on it. I think ultimately we are all examples for others, so in this sense He expects us all to walk in forgiveness.

 

[VictoryinJesus]

I'm of the belief that the master here is Jesus, and the parable here refers forward to how He will judge His servants, like Peter, in the coming kingdom if they do not forgive from the heart.


Let me show you another passage where the Lord warned the apostles about something similar:

42 Watch therefore: for you know not at what hour your Lord comes. 43 But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. 44 Therefore be also ready: for in such an hour as you think not the Son of man comes. 45 Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? 46 Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing. 47 Verily I say unto you, That he shall make him ruler over all his goods. 48 But and if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My lord delays his coming; 49 And shall begin to smite his fellow servants, and to eat and drink with the drunken; 50 The lord of that servant shall come in a day when he looks not for him, and in an hour that he is not aware of, 51 And shall cut him asunder, and appoint him his portion with the hypocrites: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. (Matthew 24:42-51)

This warning was given to His disciples. If they abused His household, i.e. the saints of God, through their positions of power in the church, He was warning them that when He returned He would cut them asunder, and appoint them their portions with the hypocrites, where there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth. In other words, they would be cast into Hell, for they had been given extremely great responsibility in Christ, and to whom much is given much is expected.

Now, what the warnings in these parables are simply trying to accomplish is to keep His disciples from walking in evil. The parable of the unmerciful servant was addressed to them as well, and Peter asked about "What if my brother offends me. How many times should I forgive him?" Well, the entire church was "his brother," and undoubtably multitudes in the church went on to offend him. But if he and the other disciples walked in unforgiveness, this would have inevitably led to them starting to abuse the church.

But I will grant you one thing, Victory. There is such a thing as Christian leaders bearing a greater responsibility (James 3:1), so maybe the Lord's expectations regarding them are a little more stringent than the typical believer. But I still wouldn't risk my eternity banking on it. I think ultimately we are all examples for others, so in this sense He expects us all to walk in forgiveness.

Well there is no way to argue it is told you will know them by their fruit. The fruit of the Spirit. You and I may not agree on Hell at James 3:6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.

Psalm 9:17
[17] The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Doubtfully we would agree on torment which is significant in ‘perfect Love’ (could only be God’s love) cast out torment. ‘Perfect love’ cast out the bondwoman but not a Son. In the parable we see Matthew 18:25
[25] But forasmuch as he had not to pay, his lord commanded him to be sold, and his wife, and children, and all that he had, and payment to be made.

his Lord commanded him to be sold to who?