THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MATTHEW - Chapter 18 - Verse 31
Verse 31. So when his fellowservants, etc. This is a mere circumstance
thrown into the story for the sake of keeping, or making a consistent
narrative. It cannot be intended to teach that other Christians
should go and tell God What a brother had done; for God well
knows all the actions of his children, and does not need us, surely,
to inform him of what is done. It is abusing the Bible, and
departing from the design of parables, to press every circumstance,
and to endeavour to extract, from it some spiritual meaning. Our
Saviour, in this parable, designed most clearly to exhibit only
one great truth—the duty of forgiving our brethren, and the great
evil of not forgiving a brother when he offends us. The circumstances
of the parable are intended only to make the story consistent with itself,
and thus to impress the general truth more fully on the mind.
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