Day 4: Forgive Us, as We Forgive

Reading: Matthew 6:14-15

¹⁴For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, ¹⁵but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.
Matthew 6:14–15 (ESV)

What They Had Heard

TODO — what a first-century hearer already had in their head when Jesus said this: the commandment itself, and the tradition of the elders built on top of it. What ruling was this teaching aimed at?

The Other Witness

³Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, ⁴and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.”
Luke 17:3–4 (ESV)

TODO — where Luke has this saying, and what is different in his wording, his placement, or his audience. Quote both and let the difference stand.

The Older Word

TODO — the Old Testament text underneath the teaching. Not a proof text: the passage Jesus is reaching back to, and what the Law actually said before the case law grew over it.

He Did It

TODO — where Jesus personally demonstrated this, usually later in the Gospels. If there is no scene — only a claim — say that instead of forcing one.

They Did It

TODO — the apostles, both halves. Where they taught this in the letters, and where they lived it in Acts.

Now Us

TODO — the payoff. Not “try harder”: what this looks like on an ordinary Tuesday, for a reader who has just watched three generations do it.

Reflection Questions

TODO

Prayer

TODO