Measure of Forgiveness
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unforgiving spirit. He who is unmerciful toward others shows that he
himself is not a partaker of God’s pardoning grace. In God’s forgive-
ness the heart of the erring one is drawn close to the great heart of
Infinite Love. The tide of divine compassion flows into the sinner’s
soul, and from him to the souls of others. The tenderness and mercy
that Christ has revealed in His own precious life will be seen in those
who become sharers of His grace. But “if any man have not the Spirit
of Christ, he is none of His.”
Romans 8:9
. He is alienated from God,
fitted only for eternal separation from Him.
It is true that he may once have received forgiveness; but his
unmerciful spirit shows that he now rejects God’s pardoning love. He
has separated himself from God, and is in the same condition as before
he was forgiven. He has denied his repentance, and his sins are upon
him as if he had not repented.
But the great lesson of the parable lies in the contrast between
God’s compassion and man’s hardheartedness; in the fact that God’s
forgiving mercy is to be the measure of our own. “Shouldest not thou
also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on
thee?”
We are not forgiven because we forgive, but as we forgive. The
ground of all forgiveness is found in the unmerited love of God, but by
our attitude toward others we show whether we have made that love
our own. Wherefore Christ says, “With what judgment ye judge, ye
shall be judged; and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured
to you again.”
Matthew 7:2
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