Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
And I return to an even shorter portion of the quote I just used.
What does this mean?
Is it eternal or in time?
Does it override everything else, or is it like finding some wood among your gold and therefore be "saved, yet as through fire"?
We are clearly commanded to forgive others because even the prayer we were given declares that we forgive others as the Father forgive us.
Are we so certain that the isolation of those few words means what it seems to when it remains in isolation? Or if someone suggested a different meaning for what it means in isolation, might we find ourselves changing to that one. Or arguing about which "out of context" understanding is correct, only to put it back in context and discover both are wrong.
This is what I am complaining about when i mention "fortune cookie" reading of scripture. That kind of approach assumes that whatever we come up with by taking a sequence of words that happen to occur in that way in scripture must be a word from God. Might go like this: "Look! Mine says 'You shall conceive and bear a son and shall call his name Jesus!' Wow, I'm going to bear the Son of God!!" "No you're not. You a guy!!" "Hey! Mine says '10 15 22 37 39 51' . . . . Ooops! Wrong side." 
I know that is a little too tongue-in-cheek. But it might help to look at the side of the map (Google maps or Mapquest) where the "+" and "-" are and back out on your view. See a little more than the roof of the house that some guy keeps asserting belongs to Bill Gates. It might be that as you back out you discover that you are looking a poor part of Tupelo, Miss. Or Sarbourg, France. |
Jesus gives more detail here:
Matthew 18
33 And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ 34 And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,[e] until he should pay all his debt. 35 So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”
The servant has no way of paying back the master if he is in jail so he'll stay there until he rots. The Father will probably be doing the same to us in eternity if we do not forgive. We have no way of paying back the wages of sin which is death since only Jesus could do this for us. Regardless, it seems like something everyone should avoid at all costs. The parable doesn't make the results of holding onto unforgiveness pleasant.
Here's an NDE of a pastor who found himself in hell after he couldn't forgive his wife in case you're interested:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAmtJF3YuhQ
There's a theme in the bible that we reap what we sow. Perhaps we cannot expect to sow unforgiveness to others yet receive forgiveness from God. Some have likened forgiveness as a door in our heart, we can only receive forgiveness if we also give forgiveness out.