Matthew 18:14–35

¹⁴In just the same way your^q Father in heaven does not want any of these little ones to be lost.

A Brother Who Sins

^15*“If your brother sins against you,^r go to him and show him his fault. But do it privately, just between yourselves. If he listens to you, you have won your brother back. ^16*But if he will not listen to you, take one or two other persons with you, so that ‘every accusation may be upheld by the testimony of two or more witnesses,’ as the scripture says. ¹⁷And if he will not listen to them, then tell the whole thing to the church. Finally, if he will not listen to the church, treat him as though he were a pagan or a tax collector.

Prohibiting and Permitting

^18*“And so I tell all of you: what you prohibit on earth will be prohibited in heaven, and what you permit on earth will be permitted in heaven.

¹⁹“And I tell you more: whenever two of you on earth agree about anything you pray for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. ²⁰For where two or three come together in my name, I am there with them.”

The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

^21*Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, if my brother keeps on sinning against me, how many times do I have to forgive him? Seven times?”

^22*“No, not seven times,” answered Jesus, “but seventy times seven,^{s 23}because the Kingdom of heaven is like this. Once there was a king who decided to check on his servants’ accounts. ²⁴He had just begun to do so when one of them was brought in who owed him millions of pounds. ²⁵The servant did not have enough to pay his debt, so the king ordered him to be sold as a slave, with his wife and his children and all that he had, in order to pay the debt. ²⁶The servant fell on his knees before the king. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay you everything!’ ²⁷The king felt sorry for him, so he forgave him the debt and let him go.

²⁸“Then the man went out and met one of his fellow-servants who owed him a few pounds. He grabbed him and started choking him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he said. ²⁹His fellow-servant fell down and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back!’ ³⁰But he refused; instead, he had him thrown into jail until he should pay the debt. ³¹When the other servants saw what had happened, they were very upset and went to the king and told him everything. ³²So he called the servant in. ‘You worthless slave!’ he said. ‘I forgave you the whole amount you owed me, just because you asked me to. ³³You should have had mercy on your fellow-servant, just as I had mercy on you.’ ³⁴The king was very angry, and he sent the servant to jail to be punished until he should pay back the whole amount.”

³⁵And Jesus concluded, “That is how my Father in heaven will treat every one of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”