Another servant come up, and the servant went out, and he found one of the fellow servants; so this is a Christian dealing with another Christian, and he owed him a hundred denarios, which is less than a day's pay, maybe $100 compared with the millions. Notice what he did - he laid hands on him, took him by the throat - ha! Pay what you owe! So the fellow servant fell at his feet and begged him. Notice he said the same thing that the other servant said to the king: have patience, I'll pay it all. But he would not, and he threw him into prison, until he should pay all the debt. So notice the things that come up in here. Now he had an opportunity, having come into grace, when he met another Christian, he had an opportunity to extend grace; so his choice was: do I pass on and extend what I'm in; or do I give the law? The law means I demand justice, I demand and insist on my rights - now notice this. He was right. He was totally right. That guy had failed, that guy had hurt him, that guy did owe him. That guy truly was in debt. He was right, and legally it was with in his rights to demand the repayment. Legally it was right - however, what needed to flow out of him was something different. He'd experienced the goodness, the grace, the mercy, the kindness of God. What was needed now, was for him to extend it to another person; so instead of that, something else came up in his heart.
He had a choice to demand what is right, and demand and stand on that, and he was quite right, legally right. He could put the guy in prison - notice, put him and his family in prison; or he could extend grace, which means yield your right, and allow the person what they didn't deserve. That was the choice. Now you notice here, it's not what you give to the person who hurts you. When someone hurts you, you want to give them a poke in the eye, you want to retaliate. Oh, you did this, and you got this thing you want to do. Don't tell me you haven't felt that way. We've all felt that. We're all made of the same stuff - and you get flustering and puffing up, and get all flamed, and your nostrils flare, and your eyes glare. You're starting to huff and puff, and your veins are bulging. Next thing you know, you're yelling, or banging a door, or doing something. You're standing on your rights that have been violated! Something's got to pay!
So I mean we've all been there and done those kinds of things - more often than we'd like to admit isn't it really? [Laughs] There you were, driving to church and someone cut you off! Grrrr! We were just going to worship God, you know? [Laughter] We somehow got it all separate. Someone cuts you off in the car park going out. and the lovely sweet face that was saying: I love you Jesus, I am blessed - Grrrr - and you're cursing just like that. Move from grace and blessing to cursing just in a moment. That's the problem.
James wrote, and he said: it shouldn't be like this. One minute we're blessing, then we're cursing them. Shaking our fist, and roaring in anger and bellowing or some kind of thing; or a more subtle form of it, with snappy little words that are like a little sword that go straight into the heart and down inside, leaves the person wounded deeply as they walk away. Or we just get [sniffs as if offended] cold, [Laughter] and we freeze them out! It's all the same stuff - demanding your rights and not being gracious. So it's not what you want to give to the person who hurt you. We all know what you want to give them, poke in the eye or a slap on the face. It's what you want to receive in your future relationships that counts, so when someone upsets you, make a decision whether you give them what you want to give them, or whether you decide about what you want it to be like for you in the future.