What should you do if someone steals something from you or tells a lie that gets you in trouble? One day Jesus taught his disciples what to do if someone sins against them. If a person admits his fault and asks for forgiveness, Christians should forgive. When Peter heard this teaching, he had a follow up question: “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” (Matt. 18:21). Jesus replied, “Not seven times, but seventy-seven times” (see 18:22). In other words, “Stop counting how many times someone sins against you. You are to forgive them every single time!” Jesus told a story to explain why.

One day a rich king decided to require his servants to pay back money they owed him. One servant owed him ten billion dollars. Wow, that’s a big debt. Astronomical! Because he obviously couldn’t pay back that astronomical amount, he fell on his knees and begged the king to be patient. The king decided to be more than patient; he would be merciful. He forgave the whole debt!

That’s shocking. But what happens next is even more shocking. Shockingly sad. The servant who was forgiven remembered that another servant owed him money—about fifteen thousand dollars. That’s still a lot. (More than you get from your grandma on your birthday, right?) But that’s not anywhere close to ten billion dollars! Now here’s what the forgiven servant did. He grabbed his fellow servant and started to choke him. “Give me the money you owe me,” he screamed. The man begged him to be patient: “Give me some time to repay you.” “No way!” the first servant said. “Off you go to debtors’ prison.” When the king found out what happened, he called the forgiven servant and said, “You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?” (18:32–33). The king tossed the man into debtors’ prison until he could pay every last penny (which might just take an eternity!).

The point of the parable is that because God (like the king) has forgiven our many sins (like the first servant’s debts), we should forgive others (like the second servant’s much-smaller debt) when they sin against us.