Spiritual Ponderings

I have been thinking about this emerging idea of the concept of debt being changed but not eliminated by forgiveness. As I meditated again on this verse about the king wishing to settle accounts with his slaves it began to break through into something very exciting that is still just beginning to make sense. The Greek word translated accounts also means words . I have seen this previously and just thought of another useful word that could apply here, the word dispute . In a way, the king wanted to settle a dispute with his servants, for a dispute creates a tension just as a debt does. In fact, when someone fails to pay a debt and the lender attempts to collect on it, a dispute is generally what it turns into. It is becoming clear in this story that the king wanted a resolution for the tension created by this condition far more than he wanted the money itself. But my mind has been searching for something in the natural realm that might have strong correlation with what is

The more I meditate on this idea of forgiveness the more connections to other things begin to appear. The thought that forgiveness in essence is letting go and that the same meaning also applies to God's wrath was a startling insight to me. But then as I thought about that more I have begun to wonder about the debt part of this concept. For it seems logical to me that very possibly forgiveness may in fact not actually eliminate the whole idea of debt but rather may transform the debt into a completely different kind of debt. The debt discussed in the story of the king and his debtor was in all respects a negative kind of debt. It produced negative consequences in their relationship which is why the king wanted to put away that debt so that his higher priority of having a close relationship with his servant could be satisfied. Of course it required that the servant might be induced into making that relationship his priority or else that goal would never be reached, which sad

And the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt. (Matthew 18:27) My mind suddenly went to other scenarios that raise interesting questions. It said here that this slave did not have the means to repay this debt. That is readily understandable given that this debt was equivalent to 150,000 years worth of wages. But what would have happened if the slave did have the resources in hand to repay the debt? What if he had stashed much of that money away rather than having it slip through his hands elsewhere? Would forgiveness have still been an option on the part of the king? How does this play out against the belief that God forgives unconditionally? Upon what basis is forgiveness anyway? There is a great deal about forgiveness that is not yet clear but discussion about it can elicit very strong emotions and opinions on the part of many. Throughout this chapter sins and offenses are generally the same thing depending on which version yo