Daily Devotional For Friday, October 18, 2024

Today is Fantastic Friday and your long awaited weekend is almost here. We are making our way through Jesus’ Sermon On The Mount in Matthew chapters 5, 6, & 7. We have finished Matthew 5 and and we are now in Matthew 6 looking at what has been traditionally called The Lord’s Prayer. Many scholars prefer to call this The Disciples’ Prayer because Jesus gave this prayer to His disciples. You can read this prayer in Matthew 6:9-13. Currently, the next line in this prayer we are to look at today is found in Matthew 6:12, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.” (NASB).

The Greek New Testament word translated as “debts” here is [ὀφείλημα, opheilema]. This is one of six words for sin in the New Testament. New Testament scholar William Barclay breaks these down for us. Thy others are:

1. Hamartia – this is the most common word used and it means “to miss the mark.”
2. Skandalizo – this is where we get our English word “scandal.” It refers to putting or giving into a stumbling block. See Jesus' words in Mark 9:42-47.
3. Paraptōma – often rendered “trespass,” is the sin of slipping or falling, and results more from carelessness than from intentional disobedience.
4. Parabasis – refers to stepping across the line, going beyond the limits prescribed by God, and is often translated as “transgression.” This sin is more conscious and intentional than hamartia and paraptōma. New Testament scholar William Barclay writes this about this word for sin: “Do we always stay on the right side of the line which divides honesty and dishonesty? Is there never any such thing as petty dishonesty in our lives? Do we always stay on the right side of the line which divides truth and falsehood? Do we never, by word or by silence, twist or evade or distort the truth? Do we always stay on the right side of the line which divides kindness and courtesy from selfishness and harshness? Is there never an unkind action or a discourteous word in our lives? When we think of it in this way, there can be none who can claim always to have remained on the right side of the dividing line.” 
5. Anomia – means lawlessness, and is a still more intentional and flagrant sin. It is a direct and open rebellion against God and His ways. Again, William Barclay says this: “Anomia is the sin of the person who knows the right, and who yet does the wrong; the sin of the one who knows the law, and who yet breaks the law. The first of all the human instincts is the instinct to do what we like; and therefore there come into many people’s lives times when they wish to kick over the traces and to defy the law, and to do or to take the forbidden thing.” 
6. Opheilema – is used only a few times in the New Testament, but its verb form is found often. Of the some thirty times it is used in its verb form, twenty–five times it refers to moral or spiritual debts. Sin is a moral and spiritual debt to God that must be paid. In his account of this prayer, Luke uses hamartia (“sins”; Luke 11:4), clearly indicating that the reference is to sin, not to a financial debt. Matthew probably used debts because it corresponded to the most common Aramaic term (hôbā) for sin used by Jews of that day, which also represented moral or spiritual debt to God. Opheilēma means a debt. It means a failure to pay that which is due, a failure in duty. None of us could ever dare to claim that we have perfectly fulfilled our duty to other people and to God: such perfection does not exist in this world” (Source: William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible Series, “Matthew,” pp. 254-255).

Sin is that which separates us from God. This is why it is our greatest problem, challenge, obstacle, cancer and enemy. Other than Jesus, every single person who has ever lived has been dominated and contaminated by sin. Sin has ruined more lives, even innocent lives who are impacted by the sins of others. Everyone sins. That is the point of Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God” (NASB).

Spiritually, sin has a payoff – death. Let’s look at Romans 6:23a, “For the wages of sin is death . . .” (NASB). Adam and Eve were created to live physically forever. They had been warned by God that if they disobeyed Him, sinned, they would die physically. Sin brings about both physical death and spiritual death. Apart from a personal relationship to Jesus Christ, people die physically and then go to hell spiritually. The common denominator for every crime, every hurt, every betrayal, all sickness, pain, disease and sorrow is sin. 

Apart from Christ, there is no cure for sin. Look at Jeremiah 13:23, “Can the Ethiopian change his skin, Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good, Who are accustomed to doing evil” (NASB). The natural man or carnal man does not want his sin cured because he enjoys it. Jesus talked about this in John 3:19, “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (NASB). Those of us who have given our lives to Christ have had our sins forgiven and pardoned and spared the eternal flames of hell. Since this prayer is for disciples, the “debts” mentioned here refer to the debts incurred by disciples of Jesus due to their sin.

What the disciples of Jesus need more is their sin forgiven more than their daily bread. New Testament scholar Arthur Pink writes this:

“As it is contrary to the holiness of God, sin is a defilement, a dishonor, and a reproach to us as it is a violation of His law. It is a crime, and as to the guilt which we contact thereby, it is a debt. As creatures we owe a debt of obedience unto our maker and governor, and through failure to render the same on account of our rank disobedience, we have incurred a debt of punishment; and it is for this that we implore a divine pardon” (Source: Arthur Pink, An Exposition of the Sermon on the Mount, pp. 163-164).

All of us have sinned and we continue to sin. When we do, being able to admit it and seeking God’s solution is most important. Read the words of New Testament scholar Lerory Lawson below about a man who realized he had to change his religion to receive God’s forgiveness:

“In July, 1962, a Buddhist monk and herbalist named Talduwe Somarama mounted a prison scaffold and was hanged in Colombo, Ceylon. He died for the 1959 assassination of his country’s Prime Minister Solomon W. R. D. Bandaranaike. In a confession he later retracted, Somarama said he killed the prime minister for favoring western medical techniques over oriental herbal medicine. Prison officials reported that twenty-four hours before he was hanged, Somarama submitted himself to Christian baptism so that he could ask God for forgiveness. There was no forgiveness for him in his Buddhist religion. He was wrong to kill but he was right to believe that the heart of the Christian gospel is forgiveness” (Source: Leroy Lawson, Matthew: Unlocking the Scriptures for You, p. 95).

Notice the order in this verse. We ask God to forgive us after we have forgiven everyone who has hurt us. We all want forgiveness and reconciliation for ourselves, just not to those who have hurt us. Failure to forgive those who have hurt us has serious consequences according to Jesus in Matthew 18:21-35. 

Anyone who refuses to forgive, who holds a grudge, who nurses resentment and bitterness towards another, is in essence cursing Jesus on the cross when He  said, “Father forgive them for they know not what they have done.” Yes, you heard me right. No one has ever been done more wrong than the sinless Jesus and yet from the cross He forgave those who put Him there, which includes you and me. When you refuse to forgive as He did and does, you are saying to Jesus, “That line from the cross you made, I’ll never say that to or about such-and-such. Never!” According to Jesus, He turns you over to the torturers until you do. It is the most extreme form of hypocrisy to want and to receive forgiveness from the One you have sinned against the most and continually and yet not forgive someone for their sin against you. 

Questions To Consider

1. Look over the six different words for sin above. Which of these are most common in your life that you need God’s forgiveness?
2. Having read the story above about a Buddhist monk and herbalist named Talduwe Somarama, what do you think of his story and why?
3. Who is it that you need to forgive? Why haven’t you? Do you really believe their sin against you is more than your sin against Jesus Christ? Why or why not?

Scripture To Meditate On: Ephesians 4:32,” Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you” (NASB).

Prayer To Pray: “Dear Jesus, I have some work to do in this area. I need Your forgiveness for my sins and I know I should forgive those who have sinned and who sin against me. There are some people I hold a grudge against. Please help me to forgive them and let it go. Thank you for forgiving me of my sins against You. I love You Jesus. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”

I love you Southside!--Pastor Kelly