To Live the Kingdom Life we should Forgive our Brother even as the Lord forgave us

For us to live the kingdom life, the God-man life, the church life, we must be humble and not despise any believer but love our brother and forgive our brother from our heart.

In Matt. 18:1-35 we have a wonderful portion on how to live the kingdom life, and right from the beginning the disciples asked the Lord, Who is the greatest in the kingdom of the heavens? What they were interested in was who is number one in the kingdom.

This was a terrible question, and the Lord did not answer this question but rather He answered the real question.

The real question is, Lord, can You please show us how to live in the reality of the kingdom among the brothers, so that we would not become a stumbling block among the people, and how should we care for all the young ones and the weak ones among us for them also to be in the reality of the kingdom?

This is the real question, and this is what the Lord answered to them. When it comes to being in the kingdom of God, the first thing we need to do is to humble ourselves, not despise any believer, but love our brother and forgive our brother from our heart.

Then later Peter asked another question, which really shows where he was, How many times do I have to forgive my brother? Such a question is full of pride, showing that Peter was offended by one of the brothers who kept offending him.

The Lord’s answer was not only seven times but seven times seven, that is, countless times.

Then the Lord spoke the parable of a slave who owed his master an insurmountable amount of money, ten thousand talants (equivalent to 12 million USD today), and he begged his master to bear with him until he can pay, but the master forgave him all his debt.

But then, when this slave went out, he found a fellow slave who owed him a small amount of money, and he demanded it from him, not being willing to forgive him or bear with him.

So the other slaves brought this matter to their master, and their master disciplined the unforgiving slave. In the living of the kingdom life we need to love our brother and forgive our brother; loving and forgiving, however, are not “feelings” but choices.

We don’t have to “feel” love to love, and we don’t have to “feel” forgiveness to forgive; we simply need to choose to love and choose to forgive, and the Lord will empower us to love and forgive.

Living the Kingdom Life by Humbling Ourselves, Not Stumbling others, and not Despising others

For us to live the kingdom life, we must humble ourselves and become like little children (see Matt. 18:2-4). For us to be in the kingdom of God we need to be like a child, guileless and without any pride.

Furthermore, for us to live in the kingdom life, we should not stumble others or set up any stumbling block (see Matt. 7:5-9; cf. 11:6). The Lord’s word in this portion is very strong, for He identifies Himself with “the little children” and “the little ones”.

Whoever receives one of these little ones, receives Me; whoever stumbles one of these little ones, it is more profitable that he would be drown in the sea. Woe to the world because of stumbling blocks; it is necessary for stumbling blocks to come, but woe to that man through whom the stumbling block comes!

When we read such an utterance by the Lord we should have a proper and healthy fear before the Lord, having a realisation and prayer before Him that we would never stumble any of the saints in the church life.

We may even tell Him, Lord, don’t let me ever be a stumbling block to any of Your saints! Do not let my failure stumble them, so that they would not lose out the enjoyment in Your kingdom!

The Lord even said that if our foot or hand causes us to stumble, we should cut it off and cast it from us; and if our eye stumbles us, we should pluck it out, for it is better to enter into the kingdom of God maimed than burn in the fire with the whole body.

In dealing with sin we need to be strong and serious; also, in taking care of other saints, in shepherding them and caring for them according to the spirit, we should also be serious and sober.

We need to learn to love one another, care for one another, and do nothing that would stumble others. Especially when it comes to the serving ones or the leading brothers, the saints are watching them, and what they do can affect the saints greatly.

Sometimes the leading brothers may not speak with one another or forgive one another, but rather may argue with one another; how can the kingdom of God be developing in such a local church?

We all need to live the kingdom life by humbling ourselves before the Lord and before the saints, and we need to not stumble one another or become a stumbling block to others.

For us to live the kingdom life, we should not despise even a little believer (Matt. 18:10-14).

It is easy to despise some who may not function outwardly too much, or who may be shy and not so knowledgeable in the word…but we need to humble ourselves, accept and appreciate each one’s portion, and learn to minister Christ to one another in the church life as the kingdom of God today.

Lord Jesus, have mercy on us. We humble ourselves before You; we want to be like little children, guileless in nature, without pride, and ready to receive something new from You. Oh Lord, save us from stumbling any of the saints through our word, deed, or attitude. May we be sober and not loose in the church life, so that we may not become a stumbling block for any of the saints. Oh Lord, may we be those who deal with sin in a serious way and who are strict with themselves so that we would not stumble others. Amen, Lord, we want to live the kingdom life by humbling ourselves, not stumbling others, and not despising any of the saints.

To Live the Kingdom Life we should Forgive our Brother without Limit as the Lord forgave us

For us to live the kingdom life today, we should forgive our brother without limit (see Matt. 18:21-35). How can we live the church life as the reality of the kingdom life today if we do not forgive one another?

The Lord’s response to Peter was that he should forgive his brother not only seven times but seventy times seven; this means that we should forgive our brother without limit. The inability to forgive others has a root, and this root is our dispositional anger.

If we have not discovered this root, we will have a very time forgiving others. The reason we can’t forgive others is because there’s anger in us; we are angry in our disposition.

We need to ask the Lord concerning this and allow Him to deal with the anger in our disposition. We must forgive the offending brother even seventy times seven; we must forgive others even as the Lord has forgiven us.

Our debt before the Lord is impossible to pay off, but as we confess our sins before the Lord, the Lord forgives our debts in our defeated Christian life for the restoration of our fellowship with Him (see Matt. 18:23-27).

Even after we were saved, we still make mistakes, we sin, and we offend others; the Lord, however, forgives our sins, cleanses us of our mistakes and impurities, and He forgives our debts in our defeated Christian life, so that our fellowship with Him may be restored.

Other’s debt toward us is very small compared with our debt to the Lord. We need to forgive others even as the Lord forgave us.

The Lord forgave us, and the more we serve Him as a slave, the more failures we have, and the more debt we are accumulating; our debt is like the United States debt, getting higher and higher every year.

We have more failures and more shortcomings, but when we come to the Lord, He forgives us every time. How can we not forgive our brother for a little offense here or a mistake there?

As we live the kingdom life, we need to forgive our brother without limit even as the Lord forgave us.

If we do not forgive the brother who sins against us, it will grieve the other brothers, and they may bring this matter to the Lord (Matt. 18:28-31), just as the fellow slaves were grieved by the way the forgiven slave dealt with his debtor, and they brought this situation to the master’s attention.

If we do not forgive a brother from our hear today, we will not be allowed to enter into the kingdom in the coming age (Matt. 18:32-35; Mark 11:25-26).

It is a serious thing not to forgive. It is serious to be offended, and it is more serious not to forgive; if we are offended and do not forgive, we cannot enter into the coming kingdom.

We need to very seriously deal with the Lord concerning the anger in our disposition and our inability to forgive, otherwise it will cost us the kingdom in its manifestation.

In the married life, the husband and the wife are saints in the church, and they are both members of the Body; they have to be reconciled every time, and offenses cannot remain unforgiven.

Offenses do happen in the married life, but we need to learn to forgive one another. The marriage life is like a “laboratory” where we work out the church life; we have to learn to forgive in the laboratory, and then we can forgive in the church life. If we can’t forgive at home, we can’t forgive anywhere else.

If we do not forgive our brother today, we shall be disciplined by the Lord until we forgive him from the heart, that is, until we have paid everything we owe (Matt. 18:34). Not forgiving a brother from our heart today may cost us not entering into the kingdom in the coming age.

Lord Jesus, save us from the anger in our disposition and heal us from the inability to forgive. We want to live the kingdom life in the church life today by forgiving our brother without limit. May we learn from You and forgive our brother even as the Lord has forgiven us. Thank You Lord for not only initially forgiving all our sins at the time of our regeneration, but for all the time forgiving us and cleansing us of our sins and trespasses in our defeated Christian life for the restoration of our fellowship with You. We want to experience and live out Your forgiving life to forgive those who wrong us even as the Lord has forgiven us!

This sharing / article is also available in the Romanian language – puteți citi acest articol / împărtășire și în limba romănă, Pentru a trăi viața împărăției, trebuie să-l iertăm pe fratele nostru așa cum și Domnul ne-a iertat.

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by bro. Mark Raabe for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msgs. 51-52 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, The Development of the Kingdom of God in the Church Life and the Christian Life (2019 spring ITERO), week 4, Living the Kingdom Life by Taking Care of Others according to the Spirit and by Realizing God’s Forgiveness.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # God has forgiven all my sins; / Behind His back they all are cast. / He’ll never call to mind again / The sins He vanquished in the past. / God has forgiven all my sins, / And as a gloomy cloud is blown, / My sins are vanished all away! / No more will they be seen or known. (Hymns #1355)
  # Can you find it in your heart to forgive, to forgive, / Can you find it in your heart to forgive, / When the one who upset you / Says “I’m sorry”, what do you do? / Can you find it in your heart to forgive? (Song on, Can You Find it in Your Heart to Forgive)
  # When each can feel his brother’s sigh, / And with him bear a part; / When sorrow flows from eye to eye, / And joy from heart to heart; / When, free from envy, scorn and pride, / Our wishes all above, / Each can his brother’s failings hide, / And show a brother’s love. (Hymns #857)