Matthew 18-19

Matthew 18:21-35 (The Message)
A Story About Forgiveness

- v32-33. The king summoned the man and said, 'You evil servant! I forgave your entire debt when you begged me for mercy. Shouldn't you be compelled to be merciful to your fellow servant who asked for mercy?'


I have been asking God about where to draw the line between generosity and people abusing your generosity. In other words, when is it neow to ask back for even $1? Is it with regards to the dollar amount, or with regards to principles? If someone owes you $1,000, I'm sure you'll wanna get the money back. But if someone owes you $1, do you still not ask for it back?

I'm not saying that we nitpick about who owes you money. I'm talking about cases whereby the person who is paying the money is not giving it out of generosity, but rather is lending the money/paying first to be paid back later.

I believe Pastor preached before that if you wanna lend someone money, then be prepared to not take it back, else don't lend. But in a case of sincere forgetfulness on the borrower's end, and you ask for your money back, wouldn't you agree with me that there is a sense of "condemnation/smallness of heart" especially when the amount owed is a small sum?

And I've observed that this is why some people don't bother to ask for their money back, in the event that they might be paiseh or give the wrong impression to others that they are being miserly. And in such cases, it isn't fair to the person who lends and it might lead to abuse in future.

My personal stand is this. If the borrower continuously forgets/refuses to pay back what he owes me, then I won't waste time chasing him down. I'll take it as a gift that I bless him with and in future, I won't lend him money liao lor.

And I think God has confirmed this to me in this passage, because the king (a person of higher authority) actually chased for the debt owed by his servant (a person of lower authority), and only cancelled the servant's debt when the servant begged for mercy. And the king compelled the servant to do the same to his fellow servants who asked for mercy. So in essence, it is with regards to the principle, and not the dollar amount, since the fellow servant owed the servant ($20) much much less than what the servant owed the king ($10,000)!


Matthew 19:13-30 (The Message)
To Enter God's Kingdom

- v23 As he watched him go, Jesus told his disciples, "Do you have any idea how difficult it is for the rich to enter God's kingdom?"

- v28-30 Jesus replied, "Yes, you have followed me. In the re-creation of the world, when the Son of Man will rule gloriously, you who have followed me will also rule, starting with the twelve tribes of Israel. And not only you, but anyone who sacrifices home, family, fields—whatever—because of me will get it all back a hundred times over, not to mention the considerable bonus of eternal life. This is the Great Reversal: many of the first ending up last, and the last first."