There was a servant to a great to the king who owed this king a great debt. He cried out for mercy and the king granted him mercy and forgave the great debt. Yet as the servant left the king's presence, he met a fellow servant who had a debt to himself and he treated him roughly. He would not even forgive his fellow a much smaller debt than the one that he had owed the king.

We should be a merciful people because we have been forgiven much.

God has had great mercy upon us. That should motivate us as we deal with our fellow human beings. We are to be a people marked by mercy.

It is a very humbling thing to ask someone for forgiveness. But it is also a humbling thing to grant forgiveness. It is putting yourself on their level and recognizing that you are one that stands in need of the mercy of God.

When we think about the mercy of God, my mind runs to the parable of what is called the wicked servant. There was a servant who had a great debt towards the king, but going before the king, he cried out for mercy. And the king granted him mercy and forgave the great debt but that same servant left the king And on his way back to his home ran across a fellow person there in the kingdom who had a debt towards him. And he treated him roughly. He demanded the payment of that much smaller debt in comparison to what debt he had towards the king.

We should be a merciful people because we have been forgiven much. God has had great mercy upon us. And that should motivate us as we deal with our fellow men, as we deal with our husband, as we deal with our wife, as we deal with our children. But We should be marked by mercy because if we know ourselves, we have been the recipients of great mercy because great was our death. When we consider the mercy of God, we have been forgiven much.

As recipients of the great mercy of God, having been forgiven much, we should be willing to forgive much. It is a very humbling thing to ask someone for forgiveness. But I would argue that the second greatest humbling thing is to actually grant forgiveness Because it puts yourself on their level. It's a recognition that you yourself are one who stands in need of mercy, of the mercy of God. And so it's a humbling thing to grant mercy to another, to grant forgiveness to one who has wronged you because it reminds us of our own great debt.

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