<p>18:33&nbsp;<i>Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow-servant</i>- This doesn&rsquo;t give the force of&nbsp;<i>dei</i>, which is the imperative, &lsquo;must&rsquo;. The idea isn&rsquo;t that he&nbsp;<i>ought</i>&nbsp;to have been compassionate, but that he was obligated to be, he &lsquo;must&rsquo; be like that. This is exactly the teaching of the earlier part of the chapter- condemnation awaits us&nbsp;<i>unless</i>&nbsp;we are forgiving and acceptant of others.</p>
<p><i>Even as I had mercy on you?-&nbsp;</i>The Lord&rsquo;s compassion is clearly intended to be ours, who are to live and move and feel &ldquo;in Him&rdquo;. The Lord of the servant &ldquo;<i>was moved with compassion&nbsp;</i>and forgave him&rdquo;- the very words used about the Lord being &ldquo;moved with compassion&rdquo; for the spiritual and human needs of the Galilean Jews He lived amongst in His life. But the point of the parable was: &ldquo;...shouldest not thou also have had compassion&hellip;?&rdquo; (Mt. 18:27,33). If we have seen and known His compassion, ought we not also to show that compassion in the same way as He did and does? His compassion must be ours. The Samaritan of Lk. 10:33 was clearly intended to be interpreted as the Lord Jesus. He &ldquo;had compassion&rdquo; on the dying man of humanity, not counting the personal cost and risk; and then the Lord bids us each to go and do likewise. Our &lsquo;doing likewise&rsquo; will issue in us too sensing the tragedy of those who have not heard, of those without a shepherd, of those who have fallen out of the way. We will be like the Father who was likewise moved with compassion for his wayward son (Lk. 15:20). The crowds of unknowing people who stream before us each day, the sad fact that we are so outnumbered in this world, that those you live and work with are dying in ignorance of the wonderful eternity that&nbsp;<i>could be</i>&nbsp;for them&hellip; that they live their lives in the darkness of selfishness, as existence rather than real life, without the light of the knowledge of the glory of God as it is in the face of Jesus Christ&hellip; all these things will powerfully&nbsp;<i>move us</i>&nbsp;to witness after the pattern of our Lord.</p>
<p><i>&quot;</i>Even as&quot; is the very teaching of the Lord&rsquo;s prayer, wherein we daily ask for forgiveness&nbsp;<i>as</i>&nbsp;we have forgiven others, in accordance with our attitude to them. This is the very meaning of those who sin against us in life- their function is really to provide us with practice for forgiveness and thereby a basis for our own forgiveness.</p>