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MATTHEW 6:12 — KING JAMES VERSION 0
Matt 6:11Matt 6:13
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.”
And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. The forgiveness petition connects God's forgiveness of the petitioner to the petitioner's forgiveness of others — the most theologically dense and potentially uncomfortable petition in the prayer. As we also have forgiven does not suggest that our forgiveness earns God's; it suggests that the two are inseparable in the kingdom's economy: the person who has genuinely received God's forgiveness cannot withhold forgiveness from others. Matthew 18:23–35 dramatizes this connection in the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant. Colossians 3:13 commands forgiving one another as the Lord has forgiven you — the direction of the flow is from received forgiveness to given forgiveness, not the reverse.

Church Fathers on Matthew 6:12

After supply of food, next pardon of sin is asked for, that he who is fed of God may live in God, and not only the present and passing life be provided for, but the eternal also; whereunto we may come, if we receive the pardon of our sins, to which the Lord gives the name of debts, as he speaks further on, 'I forgave thee all that debt, because thou desiredst me.' [Matt 18:32]

Cyprian · 3rd century · Tr. vii, 15

With this weapon the Pelagian heretics received their deathblow, who dare to say that a righteous man is free altogether from sin in this life, and that of such is at this present time composed a Church, 'having neither spot nor wrinkle.'

Augustine · 4th century · De Don. Pers., 5

That this prayer is meant for the faithful, both the laws of the Church teach, and the beginning of the prayer which instructs us to call God Father. In thus bidding the faithful pray for forgiveness of sin, He shews that even after baptism sin can be remitted (against the Novatians.)

Chrysostom · 4th century
Read all 8 entries in the readerCatena Aurea · St. Thomas Aquinas, tr. J. H. Newman · public domain
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Matthew 6:12 — Community Reflections | HolyStudy