Matthew 18 Study Notes

18:19-20 A common but mistaken interpretation holds that these verses promise that God will do whatever two or more believers ask. This violates the context. There is a clear connection with the immediately preceding discussion about restoring a sinning disciple. Verses 18-19 relate the restoration/disciplinary actions of Jesus’s disciples on earth to the decisions of the Father in heaven. The word again at the beginning of v. 19 suggests that this verse restates the principle of v. 18. The two or three mentioned in v. 20 are thus the two or three witnesses that were first mentioned in v. 16. Christ is present with his disciples when they gather and seek his leadership about troubling behavior among disciples. He will answer their prayer for the sinning believer’s restoration.

18:21-22 Although forgiving someone only seven times seems stingy, this standard was generous considering the fact that some rabbis required their students to forgive offenders only three times. Interpreters dispute whether Jesus demanded forgiving one’s brother or sister seventy-seven times or 490 times (seventy times seven), but Jesus’s point was that forgiveness should be unlimited when true repentance is present.

18:23-27 In Jewish parables, a king symbolizes God and to settle accounts symbolizes divine judgment. The ten thousand talents was equivalent to a billion days’ worth of peasant wages. This was more money than was circulating in all of Palestine. The talent was the largest unit of currency (equivalent to approximately six thousand days’ worth of wages), and ten thousand is the highest single number that can be expressed in Greek. Thus we see that in this allegory the sum represents the sinner’s hopeless debt to God. Selling the debtor, his family, and possessions would hardly begin to recoup this debt. Forgiving such a loan is an astounding act of grace.

AphiÄ“mi exhibits a broad range of nuances in the NT. It can mean to send away/dismiss (Mt 13:36) and in a legal sense to leave/divorce (1Co 7:11-13). It may also mean to leave/depart (Mk 1:20,31) or to tolerate (Rv 2:20). Another important meaning is to pardon/forgive. In this sense, aphiÄ“mi may describe the cancellation of a loan or debt (Mt 18:27,32), but it more commonly means to forgive sins (Mt 6:12,14-15; Mk 2:5,7,9-10; 3:28; Lk 7:47-49; Jn 20:23; Rm 4:7). The related noun aphesis almost always refers to God’s forgiveness of human sins. The resurrected Lord told the disciples that this forgiveness would be preached in his name, and the apostles were the first to do exactly that (Ac 2:38; 5:31; 10:43; 13:38; 26:18). Paul employed aphiÄ“mi and aphesis to describe the cancellation of sin’s infinite debt to God (Rm 4:7; Eph 1:7; Col 1:14).

18:28-31 A hundred denarii (about a hundred day’s wages) was negligible compared to the first servant’s debt to the king. The contrast shows that the sins of others against us are trivial in comparison to the enormity of our own sins against God. The fellow servant begged the servant to be patient just as the servant had begged before the king, but the fellow servant was more honest in his pleas and promises since his debt was actually manageable.

18:32-35 The parable’s point is now revealed. Since God has shown believers such great mercy by pardoning their sins, they should in turn forgive the sins of others from their heart. The word jailers literally means “torturers.” The debtor’s torture would continue until the debt was paid in full. Since the debt could not possibly be repaid, the torture symbolizes eternal punishment.