Chrysostom
Beloved
You cry out under the weight of debt, feeling the hands of creditors closing in, and your heart is pressed down with fear. This suffering is real, and God knows your anguish. But let me ask you: as you look for relief from the money you owe, have you considered the far greater debt you yourself hold against others? Not of silver or gold, but of offenses, insults, and wrongs committed against you. For every time you have been slighted or hurt, you have become a creditor, holding the trespasses of your neighbor in your heart. And what have you done with them? Do you choke your brother for a hundred pence while asking God to forgive your ten thousand talents?
Remember the servant in the parable. He owed a king an impossible sum, yet when he fell down and begged, the king freely forgave him everything. But that same man went out, found a fellow servant who owed him a trifling amount, and seized him by the throat. Do you not tremble at what followed? The master, seeing such cruelty after receiving such mercy, delivered him over to torment until he should pay all. This is no idle story. It is your mirror. You have begged God to help you with your debts, but what of the debts others owe you, the harsh word, the broken trust, the neglect? If you are holding any in your heart and demanding payment through resentment, then you are grasping your brother by the throat even now, while the mercy of God still lingers over your head.
Do not think this a small matter. To forgive a money debt does not make you like God; but to forgive a trespass, that is imitation of the Divine. And what an easy thing it is! No need of wealth or power or bodily strength, only the will. So examine yourself. Is there someone whose fault you are still exacting, a debtor of moral injury whom you refuse to release? If you say, "I am too poor to forgive a money debt," consider that you can always forgive the debt of a sin. That costs you nothing, yet its reward is infinite. For when you forgive, you make God your Debtor. Yes, He owes you mercy, not by nature but by His own lovingkindness, because He has bound Himself to His own promise: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
So do not pass by your true Debtor and run to His creature. Do not insult God by acting as if He is poor or unwilling to pay. He has boundless treasures. But if He sees you dragging another to account for what He Himself owes you, He will say, "Why do you seek from others what I am ready to give? What ingratitude is this?" And He will justly turn away.
Therefore, instead of letting stress eat at your soul, turn and loose every bond of unforgiveness. Let no creditor of the heart remain unpaid. Then fall before the Lord with confidence, and say, "Forgive me, for I have forgiven." When you do this, you are not simply begging, but asking for a debt that God Himself is pleased to repay. And what you will receive is more than the cancellation of your financial burden, you will find the peace of a cleansed soul, and whatever material deliverance God grants, you will hold it as a sign of His far greater mercy. Lay hold of Him in this way, and do not let go.
Remember the servant in the parable. He owed a king an impossible sum, yet when he fell down and begged, the king freely forgave him everything. But that same man went out, found a fellow servant who owed him a trifling amount, and seized him by the throat. Do you not tremble at what followed? The master, seeing such cruelty after receiving such mercy, delivered him over to torment until he should pay all. This is no idle story. It is your mirror. You have begged God to help you with your debts, but what of the debts others owe you, the harsh word, the broken trust, the neglect? If you are holding any in your heart and demanding payment through resentment, then you are grasping your brother by the throat even now, while the mercy of God still lingers over your head.
Do not think this a small matter. To forgive a money debt does not make you like God; but to forgive a trespass, that is imitation of the Divine. And what an easy thing it is! No need of wealth or power or bodily strength, only the will. So examine yourself. Is there someone whose fault you are still exacting, a debtor of moral injury whom you refuse to release? If you say, "I am too poor to forgive a money debt," consider that you can always forgive the debt of a sin. That costs you nothing, yet its reward is infinite. For when you forgive, you make God your Debtor. Yes, He owes you mercy, not by nature but by His own lovingkindness, because He has bound Himself to His own promise: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors."
So do not pass by your true Debtor and run to His creature. Do not insult God by acting as if He is poor or unwilling to pay. He has boundless treasures. But if He sees you dragging another to account for what He Himself owes you, He will say, "Why do you seek from others what I am ready to give? What ingratitude is this?" And He will justly turn away.
Therefore, instead of letting stress eat at your soul, turn and loose every bond of unforgiveness. Let no creditor of the heart remain unpaid. Then fall before the Lord with confidence, and say, "Forgive me, for I have forgiven." When you do this, you are not simply begging, but asking for a debt that God Himself is pleased to repay. And what you will receive is more than the cancellation of your financial burden, you will find the peace of a cleansed soul, and whatever material deliverance God grants, you will hold it as a sign of His far greater mercy. Lay hold of Him in this way, and do not let go.
