In the realm of religious teaching that I have heard, the teaching concerning God’s forgiveness has largely been as follows: God will forgive you, no matter what you’ve done, and once He has “saved” you, you are forever His child even if you choose to act as if you were not. Have you ever heard the catch phrase, “Once saved, always saved?”

The passage from the New Testament in Matthew chapter eighteen seems to reveal otherwise. Beginning in verse 21, a parable is given (see below for the full text) where a man owes his lord a certain large sum of money. When he begs for patience, his lord forgives the man of his debt. When the man who has been forgiven refuses to forgive another, his lord finds out about it and revokes the forgiveness that had been previously extended to him. The man who had previously been forgiven has now been delivered to the tormentors until he repays the full amount of the original debt, a condition that presumably can never be met.

The parable and the application is quite clear as spoken by Jesus Himself: “So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.”

So, tell me then, what do you think? This servant was forgiven, then is unforgiven. Is the only way to get unforgiven a refusal to forgive another who asks it of you, or are there other ways to get unforgiven? Or, maybe, this servant really isn’t unforgiven and there’s some other interpretation that shows that this man’s soul continues to be secure in salvation?