Matthew 18:34-35 “And his master was angry, and delivered him to the torturers until he should pay all that was due to him. (35) "So, My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses.”
The second negative consequence of unforgiveness is that it opens the door for torment in the believer’s life. Our Lord Jesus revealed that truth to us in the above quoted passage of scripture. Another translation of the word “torturer” in this passage is “tormentor”. This translation gives us a better insight into what Jesus was referring too, when He stated that our heavenly Father will allow tormentors to impact the life of the Christian who refuses to forgive.
Philippians 4:6-7 “Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; (7) and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.”
So, what does it mean to be delivered up to the tormentors? Torment carries the meaning of mental suffering. The Christian, who refuses to forgive, will begin to experience oppressive thoughts that are from demonic spirits. They will start to become anxious, and begin to worry about various things in their lives. That believer will not have any peace, because demonic spirits will constantly plague them with evil thoughts about the brother or sister that they refuse to forgive. Their sleep will also become disrupted and depression will begin to take hold on their lives (Proverbs 12:25). In the above quoted passage of scripture the Holy Spirit teaches us that the peace of God guards our hearts and minds. God’s peace guards us from demonic spirits that would try to influence our thought life with thoughts of anxiety. You can readily see then, that if God were to remove His peace from guarding our hearts and minds, that we would be open to all the attacks of the enemy against our thought life.
Mark 11:22-26 “So Jesus answered and said to them, "Have faith in God. (23) For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. (24) Therefore, I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them. (25) "And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. (26) But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.”
The third negative consequence of unforgiveness is that we are no longer able to pray the prayer of faith. We can receive nothing from God unless we ask in faith. That is how God operates, and He will not violate His word. In the teaching quoted above Jesus linked the prayer of faith to forgiveness. In other words, what He is saying is that there are in fact two requirements to receiving from God. One is asking in faith, but the other is forgiveness. Notice that in the above teaching that the Lord states that we must not have doubt in our hearts if we are to receive from God.
1 John 3:21-22 “Beloved, if our heart does not condemn us, we have confidence toward God. (22) And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.”
Unforgiveness has the effect of creating doubt in our hearts, because our own hearts will condemn us for not keeping the commandments of God (Romans 2:15). And so, we cannot have confidence toward God, because we know that we are not doing that which is pleasing in His sight. In other words, we will experience the exact opposite to the scripture quoted above.
Michael E.B. Maher
Comments