The Duty and the Danger
Matthew 18:23-35
By Harold Dinsmore, M.Div
© 2008 Harold Dinsmore.

Trespassing is a common offense.  Recently, a family was out hunting on the wife’s family’s farm when they heard two vehicles coming toward them out in the woods.  Two pickups went just north of them and stopped over a little rise.  One guy fired his gun a couple of times to let the guys in the pickups know they were in the area.  Then they circled around and walked up the ridge and asked them if they could help them.

The guys in the pickups were going to cut wood off the property, so the family asked them if they had permission from the land owner to be there.  Of course, they knew they didn’t, and the family asked them to leave.

Later, the land owner got a call from a neighbor, asking if it was ok for them to cut a tree that had fallen from his pasture over on to theirs.  He okayed it and the matter was settled.

In the Bible, we discover that the word trespassing is used differently than our common usage of today.  It was used in relation to what a person does wrong.  Wrong-doings, or sin, is how we speak of trespasses today.  In the Lord’s Prayer, Jesus taught us to pray, “And forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”¹

Thus, how we forgive others who hurt us, or sin against us personally, is directly related to the degree we are forgiven by God.  Nice little twist He throws at us, isn’t it?