Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The Lord's Prayer Part II - Talking to the Father about the Family, Part 45 of 61
TEXT: "In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors" (Matthew 6:9-12).
IDEA: Sharp words from Christ should not be softened, and need to be applied with thought and skill.
PURPOSE: To help listeners understand to whom these words apply in the petition asking for forgiveness.
Have you ever had the experience of speaking about some sin and the person who seems to be guilty of committing that sin doesn’t get it and the most godly person you know responds in grief or guilt?
I think it may be possible for us to do that with the petition, “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” We must handle that request with care.
I. What do you think this request is asking?
“Lord, deal with me as I deal with my neighbor.” (Kent Hughes)
Can you imagine a Christian praying prayers like these?
“She has been ungrateful to me (though not one hundredth as ungrateful as I have been with You), yet I cannot overlook her ingratitude. Deal with me, Lord, as I deal with her.”
“I will not overlook every little incident in which I think he has mistreated me. Deal with me, Lord, as I deal with him.”
“The first opportunity I get to pay them back will really make me happy. Deal with me, Lord, as I deal with them.”
II. What do you think a refusal to forgive others is showing?
Is it possible to make our unforgiving spirit a “deadly virtue”?
John Wesley served as a missionary to the American colonies. He had to work with General Oglethorpe who was noted for his harshness and pride. On one occasion Wesley went to the general to plead for forgiveness for a soldier who had been given a severe sentence for a minor indiscretion. Oglethorpe said, “I never forgive.” Wesley replied, “Then, Sir, I hope you never sin.”
Doesn’t this request imply that if we refuse to forgive others, then we cannot be forgiven?
The Puritan Thomas Watson wrote that “a man can as well go to hell for not forgiving as for not believing.”
C. S. Lewis, in Fern-Seed and Elephants, wrote, “No part of his teaching is clearer: and there are no exceptions to it. He doesn’t say that we are to forgive other people’s sins providing they are not too frightful, or providing there are extenuating circumstances, or anything of that sort. We are to forgive them all, however spiteful, however mean, however often they are repeated. If we don’t, we shall be forgiven none of our own.”
We dare not soften this in dealing with our own attitude. It may be that we accept excuses too easily, other people do not accept them easily enough.
