Here’s my fairly literal translation of these verses:
14For, if you forgive the men their sins, your heavenly Father will also forgive you yours, 15but, if you do not forgive men their sins, neither will your Father forgive your sins.
Hmmmm. What I want to say is different than anything I find in myriads of commentaries. That is scary to me, remembering John Eadie’s words, “Interpretations are generally false in proportion to their ingenuity.” When no one else seems to see what I think I see, it is certainly cause to hesitate and pray. However, having done so, I still can only build my life and my faith on what it seems to me the Lord has clearly shown me.
Here's where I must begin. The Bible is very clear that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Prov. 9:10). Certainly, if us humans obey God for no other reason than fear, we’re better off than not obeying Him at all. I fear that for most of the human race, that is the best they’ll ever do, the best we can hope for. It’s what Napoleon called every man’s “personal sheriff” – I do right simply because I fear to do wrong.
However, while the fear of the Lord may be the beginning of wisdom, it is not the end. And what is the end? “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God will all thine heart and with all thy soul and with all thy mind and with all thy strength and thy neighbor as thyself.” The end of wisdom is love – love to God and love to our fellow humans. Such a person will also do right, but not just out of fear, rather out of love. How can I sit warmly in my Father’s lap and sin in His face? As Paul often says, “Mai genoito! – May it never be!”
The person who obeys only out of fear sees the Lord as their Judge. For them, the whole Lord’s prayer should be addressed to “Our Judge who is in heaven…” or begin their prayers with “Your Honor…” As I said above, if we obey God for no other reason, it’s certainly infinitely better than not obeying Him at all, and, for us believers, there will always be times when that is true – especially when confronted with our most vulnerable temptations.
However, it is far better to keep the fear “in our back pocket,” so to speak, and move on to a real love relationship with this God whom Jesus teaches us to call “Our Father.” For us believers, I suppose part of our lives is this process of moving from that legal relationship with God deeper and deeper into the love relationship He truly desires. As I’ve related before, I have the wonderful privilege to have had very loving parents and have always felt I had no problem understanding this love relationship with my heavenly Father. Yet, just in this study of mine through the Lord’s prayer, and listening to my pastor (actually He’s doing a sermon series on the Prayer and I’m just following along), I feel like I’ve made a quantum leap forward in my understanding.
It really makes sense to me, even way more than ever before, why the Lord’s prayer is addressed from the very beginning to “Our Father, which art in heaven…” You see, even in this simple prayer, Jesus is calling us into that love relationship.
Now, read Matthew 6:14,15 again. I hope you already see what I see. While this passage appears very threatening, the forgiveness in view is not coming from your Judge, but rather from “your Father.” What is the difference? Relationship. Love. It is one thing to break the law and be arrested. It is entirely something different to disappoint my Father! If you want to read the passage standing before your Judge, go ahead. It’s better than sinning. If you read it that way, His withholding of forgiveness is a punishment. And it is certainly true, “Our God is a consuming fire.”
However, how much better to read it sitting in our Father’s lap, looking into His loving eyes? His withholding of forgiveness is not a punishment, it is a correction. Punishment is only about justice. Correction is what truly loving parents give their children. Lost people see no difference between a beating and a Biblical spanking. They apparently can’t see that a loving parent would rather sting a child’s bottom temporarily than let them grow up with bad habits that will wreck their lives. I wonder how many people there are in this country’s prisons who would not be there if only their parents had loved them enough to give them a good spanking when they needed it. The sting from the spanking would have been gone in a few minutes. How much better that than spending years rotting in a prison or overcoming addictions?
No. You don’t have to read this passage sitting in a docket. You can read it sitting in your Father’s lap. This doesn’t have to be about punishment. It’s about correction. We would all agree it is a very bad thing to be a believer and refuse to forgive those who wrong us. What does Eph. 4:32 admonish us? “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God, for Christ’s sake, has forgiven you.” “Just as God has forgiven you.” How can we lounge in sunshine of grace, then refuse to extend it to others?
So there it is. If you’ve stumbled across my feeble scratchings, you can decide for yourself whether what I’m writing is a correct understanding of this passage. However, I am convinced it is true and would urge you to seriously consider your own relationship with God. Is He really just your Judge and you the guilty criminal, or have you moved on into a love relationship with your heavenly Father, to sit in His lap, to see that He only means to help you grow and to become the godly person you were meant to be – a Jesus-people – a person who deeply values their relationship with their Father and so, in turn, values relationships with people – someone who accepts your Father’s grace and so, in turn, can’t help but want to extend that grace to everyone around you?
This passage not only calls us to consider our forgiveness of others – it would even challenge us to seriously consider our relationship with God. How we read the passage my tell us a lot!
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