Matthew 18:23-35

23Jesus then said, ‘I will tell you a story to show what the kingdom of heaven is like. A king wanted to check how much money his servants should give to him because of their debts.

24So the king began to check. His men led a servant to him who had a big debt. He must pay back 10,000 gold coins to the king.

25The servant could not pay his big debt to the king. So the king said to his men, “Sell the servant and his wife and his children and all his things. Then I will keep the money to pay his debt.”

26Then the servant went down on his knees in front of the king. He said to the king, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will pay you everything.”

27The king felt sorry for his servant. He forgave him for all the debt and let him go free.

28But then that same servant went away and he met another servant of the king. This other servant had to pay back a debt of 100 silver coins to the first servant. The first servant took hold of the neck of the other servant to hurt him. He said, “Give me the money that is mine.”

29The other servant went down on his knees in front of the first servant. He said, “Please, please give me some more time, then I will give you the money.”

30But the first servant would not agree. He put the other servant in prison until he could pay his debt to him.

31The other servants of the king saw what had happened. They were very upset about it. So they went to see the king. They told him about everything that had happened.

32When the king heard this, he told the first servant to come to him. “You are a very bad person,” the king said to the servant. “I forgave you the whole of your big debt to me. I did this because you asked me very strongly.

33I was kind to you. You should have been kind to that other servant in the same way.”

34The king was very angry with the first servant. He told his men to put him in prison. They punished the servant there very much, until he could pay all his debt to the king.’

35Then Jesus finished the story and he said, ‘You must forgive your friends completely. If you do not agree to forgive them, then my Father in heaven will do like that king did. He will not forgive you.’