The servant in our Gospel Lesson was graciously released from his impossible-to-pay debt only to harass a fellow servant who owed him a small sum. The king had pronounced him forgiven, but that had not altered the resentment and hostility in his heart.

Something of this sort often happens in the Christian frame of reference. Maybe such an attitude is apparent in our prejudices toward other races or social classes, our snobbishness, our looking down-our-noses at the weaknesses and failures of others. If this is true, it may well proclaim to the world that something is out of kilter in our relationship to God. God has been gracious; God has bestowed love and forgiveness on every one of us. If we, in turn, cannot genuinely portray a like spirit of love and forgiveness toward one another, it indicates some basic insincerity or lack of receptivity in respect to the forgiveness of our sin. 

The forgiving and accepting love of God is the basis for our forgiving and accepting and loving one another. If God’s forgiveness of us does not result in our forgiveness of one another, that, according to Jesus, puts us at odds with God. To have the living Christ within us means to feel towards others as Christ would feel and act toward us.

God’s acceptance of us as we are certainly does result in making us tender, accepting, understanding and forgiving toward one another. May we never refuse God’s forgiveness but receive it and pass it on whenever we can.