<p>6:14&nbsp;<em>For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you</em>- The Lord guessed that His teaching to ask for forgiveness &ldquo;as&rdquo; we forgive others would be radical and hard to accept. The Lord&rsquo;s teaching in the prayer [&ldquo;as we forgive&rdquo;] was clear enough, but He repeats it twice (also in :15), so that there be no possible difficulty in interpretation. He rarely spells things out this specifically and with such immediate repetition. The vital, eternally vital need to forgive others is underlined. And the Lord repeats this teaching later in His teaching, with the further detail that unless we forgive others &ldquo;from your hearts&rdquo;, we will not be forgiven (Mt. 18:35; also in Mk. 11:25). This chronic and urgent need to forgive others, aware that&nbsp;<em>how</em>&nbsp;we forgive them is the basis of&nbsp;<em>how</em>&nbsp;God will forgive us, leads to the question of whether we should forgive others without their repentance. If we first demand specific repentance, then this is the basis upon which we are asking to be judged; and we all, surely, sin without repentance, sometimes because at the time we do not perceive the sinfulness of our behaviour.&nbsp;</p>