Are We Not All Beggars?

Yesterday in Sunday School we studied Matthew chapter 18.

I've read it before but it struck me so hard yesterday that I need to be more forgiving.

Let's quickly review what is in the scriptures.

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The disciple Peter asked the Savior, "Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? tell seven times?"

The Savior responded with "seventy times seven" and then taught Peter through the parable of the unforgiving servant (found in Matthew 18:23-35):

There was a servant who owed his King 10,000 talents.

In our class someone said this was the equivalent of three LIFETIMES of work.

Meaning, the servant would have never been able to pay it!!!

The King commanded that the servant, his family, and all he owned should be sold to pay the debt.

The servant begged for patience from the King so that he could pay.

The King was compassionate and forgave him the debt.

THREE LIFETIMES of debt!

That same servant then found one of his buddies who owed him 100 pence.

In class this was said this was about three months of wages.

NOTHING compared to the three lifetimes of wages that servant #1 owed.

The buddy couldn't pay and begged for patience, in fact, he used the same exact phrase of "have patience with me and I will pay thee all" that the servant used when speaking with the King.

But the servant had no compassion and threw his buddy in prison until the debt could be paid.

Others saw what had been done and told the King of this servant's actions.

He was called before the King who said, "O thou wicked servant, I forgave thee all that debt, because thous desiredst me: Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellow servant, even as I had pity on thee?" The unforgiving servant was then delivered to the "tormentors" until he could pay the debt.

Christ then says:

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So what's the take-away message here?

If we are not willing to forgive others of their debt or offenses or rude comments or unkind actions or whatever it may be that hurt us or inconvenienced us, our Heavenly Father WILL NOT forgive us.

That's pretty clear.

Which led me to think about the talk from Elder Holland last fall "Are We Not All Beggars?"

Am I not in just as much debt to my Father in Heaven as the next person?

Don't I have just as many weaknesses, sins, faults, errors, misjudgments, imperfections, misdeeds, flaws, and more that I NEED God to forgive me for?

If I have any glimmer of hope for forgiveness or any little bit of belief that the Atonement of Jesus Christ can help me overcome my HUGE PILE of shortcomings, how could I not forgive someone else? How could I expect God's grace to cover me but not them.

Something to think about.

Here are a couple of talks that I thought were helpful on the subject or forgiving others and helping others that you could listen to:

President Dieter F. Uchtodorf "The Merciful Obtain Mercy" April 2012 General Conference

Elder Jeffrey R. Holland "Are We Not All Beggars?" October 2014 General Conference