21 Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?” 22 Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times. 23 “Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. 24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. 25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. 26 “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ 27 The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go. 28 “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. 29 “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ 30 “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. 32 “Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. 35 “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.” (Matthew 18:21-35)
Here Peter asked Lord Jesus, how many times should he forgive a brother who offended him? Is it up to seven times? Lord Jesus said that it is not seven times, but seventy-seven times, that is unlimited forgiveness, complete forgiveness. This parable tells us that a servant owed a lot debt to his master, and his master canceled all his debt, but another person owed little to him, he didn’t want to cancel the debt. This reminds us that the Lord has forgiven us, and we should also forgive others. The Lord forgave us a lot, and we should forgive others. The Lord has mercy on us, and we should have mercy on others. Lord Jesus said that forgive your brother from the heart is complete forgiveness.
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. (Matthew 6:12)
This is part of Lord’s Prayer Lord Jesus taught, forgive us our debts, just as we have forgiven our debtors. This is to ask Heavenly Father to forgive our sins, as we have forgiven sins of others. When we forgive others, the heavenly Father forgives us.
But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice.’ (Matthew 9:13)
Here it says that the Lord desires mercy, not sacrifice. He wants us to be merciful to others. He wants us to be merciful to others as he is merciful to us. He wants us to forgive others, as he forgives us.
May God bless you and your family 
