Matthew 18:33 kjv
Shouldest not thou also have had compassion on thy fellowservant, even as I had pity on thee?
Matthew 18:33 nkjv
Should you not also have had compassion on your fellow servant, just as I had pity on you?'
Matthew 18:33 niv
Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'
Matthew 18:33 esv
And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?'
Matthew 18:33 nlt
Shouldn't you have mercy on your fellow servant, just as I had mercy on you?'
Matthew 18 33 Cross References
| Verse | Text | Reference |
|---|---|---|
| Matt 6:14-15 | "For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you... | Forgiveness hinges on forgiving others. |
| Eph 4:32 | "Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you." | Christian behavior mirrors Christ's example. |
| Col 3:13 | "bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you..." | Forgiveness in the body of Christ. |
| Luke 6:36 | "Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." | Direct command to imitate God's mercy. |
| Jas 2:13 | "For judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not shown mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment!" | Lack of mercy results in judgment. |
| 1 John 4:11 | "Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another." | God's love compels us to love others. |
| Matt 18:34-35 | "And in anger his master delivered him to the tormentors, until he should pay all his debt..." | Consequences of unforgiveness (direct). |
| Luke 6:37 | "Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven..." | Reciprocal nature of judgment and forgiveness. |
| Ps 103:8-12 | "The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love... | Extent of God's forgiving mercy. |
| Isa 55:7 | "let him return to the LORD, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon." | God's willingness to abundantly pardon. |
| Mic 7:18-19 | "Who is a God like you, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant... | God delights in mercy and forgiveness. |
| Rom 5:8 | "but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us." | God's preemptive mercy despite our sin. |
| Titus 3:5 | "he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy..." | Salvation is by God's mercy, not human merit. |
| Rom 12:10 | "Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor." | Call to Christian love within community. |
| Gal 6:2 | "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." | Responsibility to care for others in Christ. |
| Matt 7:3-5 | "Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?" | Warning against hypocrisy in judgment. |
| John 13:34-35 | "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another." | Discipleship evidenced by reciprocal love. |
| Phil 2:3-4 | "Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves... | Humility and valuing others. |
| 1 John 3:16-17 | "By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers." | Love for brethren demonstrated in action. |
| Prov 28:13 | "Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy." | Importance of confessing for mercy. |
| Dan 9:9 | "To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him..." | God as the source of mercy and forgiveness. |
| Luke 17:3-4 | "If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him... | Direct command to forgive repenting brothers. |
Matthew 18 verses
Matthew 18 33 Meaning
Matthew 18:33 is a rhetorical question posed by the master in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant, challenging the servant who had been forgiven an enormous debt. It encapsulates the core message of the parable: those who have experienced boundless mercy and forgiveness from God are morally obligated to extend that same measure of mercy and forgiveness to others, particularly fellow believers who have wronged them. It highlights the divine expectation that recipients of God's abundant grace should become channels of grace to those around them.
Matthew 18 33 Context
Matthew 18:33 is part of Jesus' discourse on Kingdom principles, specifically addressing community life and relationships within the church. The chapter begins with disciples asking about greatness in the kingdom (Matt 18:1), leading Jesus to emphasize humility and a childlike spirit. This foundational humility prepares the way for understanding grace and forgiveness. The verses immediately preceding the parable involve Peter asking how often he should forgive a brother, suggesting a legalistic approach (up to "seven times"?), to which Jesus famously replies, "seventy times seven" (Matt 18:21-22), indicating unlimited forgiveness. The Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Matt 18:23-35) directly illustrates why this boundless forgiveness is essential: it flows from God's immense forgiveness of humanity. The verse 33 is the master's crucial rhetorical question that exposes the unforgiving servant's egregious inconsistency and moral failure, highlighting the disparity between the grace received and the grace withheld.
Matthew 18 33 Word analysis
- Should you not: (Greek: Ouk edei) This is a rhetorical question, grammatically structured to expect an emphatic "Yes!" or "Indeed, I should have." Ouk edei signifies "was it not necessary?" or "ought you not to have?". It conveys a strong sense of moral obligation or inherent fitness based on what transpired before.
- also: (Greek: kai) Emphasizes inclusion. It underscores that just as the master acted, so too the servant should have acted. It creates a direct parallel and highlights the reciprocal expectation.
- have had mercy: (Greek: eleēsae) Derived from eleeō, meaning to feel pity or compassion for, and actively express it, especially through providing help to someone in need or distress. In the context of debt, it means to remit the debt out of compassion. It's an active, compassionate cancellation of a wrong or a debt, reflecting the prior action of the master.
- on your fellow servant: (Greek: ton syndoulon sou) Syndoulos means a fellow-slave or fellow-servant. This term is crucial, highlighting the shared status and humanity. Both the unforgiving servant and his debtor are under the authority of the same master, implying a familial bond or shared accountability within the household of the Kingdom. The horizontal relationship among believers is always informed by the vertical relationship with God.
- just as: (Greek: hōs kai egō) This phrase denotes a standard, a benchmark, or a perfect parallel. It demands that the servant's actions correspond precisely to the master's prior actions. It ties the human act of mercy directly to the divine act.
- I had mercy on you: (Greek: se ēleēsa) The emphatic egō ("I," the master) underscores the source of the profound mercy. Ēleēsa is an aorist tense verb, indicating a past, completed act of mercy, referring to the master forgiving the servant's enormous, impossible debt. This is the cornerstone of the moral imperative: the recipient of extraordinary grace must then extend grace.
Words-group analysis:
- "Should you not also have had mercy...just as I had mercy on you?": This phrase constitutes the ethical crux of the parable. It serves as a profound call for reciprocity rooted in received grace. The magnitude of the grace received from the master (God) establishes the standard for the grace that must be extended to the "fellow servant" (one's neighbor or fellow believer). The inability or refusal to extend mercy reveals a fundamental misunderstanding or denial of the very grace one has personally received. It's a foundational principle of kingdom living: divine forgiveness enables human forgiveness, and human unforgiveness undermines the received divine forgiveness.
Matthew 18 33 Bonus section
The disproportionate amounts of the debts (10,000 talents vs. 100 denarii) are key to understanding the depth of this verse. The 10,000 talents represent an utterly unpayable, incomprehensibly large sum, symbolizing humanity's infinite sin debt to God. In contrast, 100 denarii, while not insignificant, was a relatively small, manageable sum. This colossal difference underscores the immense, immeasurable grace extended by God versus the relatively small grievances we hold against one another. The expectation in verse 33 is not about merely showing mercy, but matching the quality of mercy received. True kingdom citizenship involves embodying the forgiveness that flows from God's heart. A failure to forgive demonstrates that the grace of God has not genuinely transformed one's heart, or that it has not been adequately grasped, ultimately placing one outside the continuous mercy of the Kingdom.
Matthew 18 33 Commentary
Matthew 18:33 crystallizes the core moral teaching of the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. It's a stark rhetorical question from the master that unmasks the profound inconsistency and moral bankruptcy of the servant who received immense, unmerited mercy but refused to grant a comparatively trivial mercy to another. The passage is not suggesting that forgiving others earns divine forgiveness; rather, it implies that the willingness to forgive is tangible evidence of having truly received and apprehended God's gracious forgiveness for oneself. An unforgiving heart demonstrates a failure to grasp the immeasurable debt God has pardoned, thereby severing oneself from the ongoing flow of God's grace and incurring judgment. The "fellow servant" emphasizes that our relationships within the community of faith, mirroring our relationship with God, demand a commensurate display of the character of God – specifically His merciful forgiveness. For example, if a believer receives healing and forgiveness from Christ for deep personal wounds, it creates an ethical obligation to show compassion and extend forgiveness to someone who has caused them a far lesser hurt. To live as one forgiven means to live as one who forgives.