So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if you from your hearts forgive not everyone his brother their trespasses.
All Commentaries on Matthew 18:35 Go To Matthew 18
Augustine of Hippo
AD 430
Serm., 83, 6: Therefore let us say, that because the Law is set forth in ten precepts, the ten thousand talents which he owed denote all sins which can be done under the Law.
Quaest. Ev., i, 25: This signifies that the transgressor of the Decalogue deserves punishment for his lusts and evil deeds; and that is his price; forthe price for which they sell is the punishment of him that is damned.
Serm., 83, 6: That He says he “owed him a hundred denarii” is taken from the same number, ten, the number of the Law. For a hundred times a hundred are ten thousand, and ten times ten are a hundred; and those ten thousand talents and these hundred denarii are still keeping to the number of the Law; in both of them you find sins. Both are debtors, both are suitors for remission; so everyman is himself a debtor to God, and has his brother his debtor.
But this unworthy, unjust servant would not render that which had been rendered to him, for it follows, “And he laid hands on him, and held him by the throat, saying, Pay me that thou owest.”.
Quaest. Ev., i, 21: That is, he nourished such thoughts towards him that he sought his punishment. “But he went his way.”.
Quaest. Ev., i, 25: By the fellow servants is understood the Church, which binds one and looses another.
Serm., 83, 7: For God says, “Forgive, and ye shall be forgiven;” I have first forgiven, forgive you then after Me; for if you forgive not, I will call you back, and will require again all that I had remitted to you. For Christ neither deceives nor is deceived; and He adds here, “Thus will my heavenly Father do unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.” It is better that you should cry out with your mouth, and forgive in your heart, than that you should speak smoothly, and be unrelenting in your heart. For the Lord adds, “From your hearts,” to the end that though, out of affection you put him to discipline, yet gentleness should not depart out of your heart. What is more beneficial than the knife of the surgeon? He is rough with the sore that the man may be healed; should he be tender with the sore, the man were lost.
