As we end this eleventh week after Pentecost, we hear Jesus’ parable of the merciless official. Matthew puts this parable in the context of Peter asking Jesus: Lord, when my brother wrongs me, how often must I forgive him? Seven times? Jesus replies to Peter: No, not seven times; I say, seventy times seven times. By saying this, Jesus was not limiting forgiveness to just 490 times but to indicate that His followers must truly extend unconditional forgiveness to others in order to truly be one of His followers.

As followers of Jesus, we are called to have forgiving hearts, learning how not to limit our forgiveness. We must dare to aspire to this type of behavior, knowing and believing that God’s Spirit lives within us. He can and does provide us with the ability to live in this manner if we have faith and have a real desire to be one of His followers.

Why is it important that we learn how to live this way? Because the purpose of this earthly existence is to learn how to be more like Jesus. There is no greater task in life than to be a true follower of Jesus. When we attempt to do this, we are fulfilling the purpose God intended when He brought us into existence. Earthly life is intended to provide us with a variety of opportunities to grow in the likeness of Jesus – to become a true child of God.

After this brief response to Peter, Jesus then presented a parable which sets forth one of Jesus’ important teachings, namely that we can only receive from God what we are capable of extending to others. This is a basic law of life. We can only receive what we are capable of giving. This means that we can only be unconditionally loved and forgiven if we are trying to develop the ability to unconditionally love and forgive others.

So, even though it may be done for a selfish reason, we should strive to develop this ability so that we might receive true love and forgiveness ourselves.

Think about this! Anytime we limit our love or forgiveness for others, we lessen our own ability to be forgiven and loved. Even though God may love and forgive us unconditionally, we limit our ability to accept His love and forgiveness because we have not developed our ability to receive it. This is truly what it means to be in a cooperative relationship with God. Salvation, Eastern spirituality (Theosis) tells us, requires us to have a cooperative relationship with God!