And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
This verse comes from the Lord's Prayer — a model prayer Jesus taught his disciples when they asked him how to pray. The word 'debts' here refers to moral wrongs: the things we've done against God and against other people. What makes this line striking is the conditional structure — we're asking God to forgive us in the same measure we've forgiven others. Jesus isn't setting up a transaction, but pointing to a deep truth: people who have genuinely received grace find it possible to give it. The prayer assumes forgiveness flows in both directions.
Father, I confess I sometimes ask for your forgiveness while holding tightly to grievances against others. Soften the places in me that have gone hard. Give me the courage to forgive — not because the hurt wasn't real, but because your grace to me is greater than any debt I'm owed. Amen.
Most of us have said this prayer so many times the words blur together. 'Forgive us our debts' rolls off the tongue easily enough. But there's a clause buried in the middle that should make us pause — 'as we also have forgiven our debtors.' You're essentially asking God to treat you the way you've treated the person who wronged you. That's either comforting or terrifying, depending on how your week has gone. Think of the person you haven't forgiven. The one whose name still tightens your jaw. Jesus doesn't say forgiveness is easy or that it excuses the wrong. But he's asking you to notice something: the grace you want from God is the same grace someone else needs from you. You don't have to feel forgiving to begin. You just have to be honest enough to say, 'I want to — help me get there.'
Why do you think Jesus chose to link receiving God's forgiveness with giving forgiveness to others within the same prayer?
Is there someone in your life right now that you find genuinely hard to forgive — and what's making it so difficult?
Some read this verse as suggesting God withholds forgiveness from us if we haven't forgiven others — how do you wrestle with that idea?
How does holding onto unforgiveness affect your relationships with the people around you, even those not involved in the original hurt?
What is one concrete step you could take this week toward forgiving someone, even if you're not fully there yet?
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
1 John 1:9
Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.
Colossians 3:13
And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.
Mark 11:25
In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;
Ephesians 1:7
And be ye kind one to another , tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Ephesians 4:32
But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another , and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
1 John 1:7
Then came Peter to him, and said, Lord, how oft shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? till seven times?
Matthew 18:21
So likewise shall my heavenly Father do also unto you, if ye from your hearts forgive not every one his brother their trespasses.
Matthew 18:35
'And forgive us our debts, as we have forgiven our debtors [letting go of both the wrong and the resentment].
AMP
and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
ESV
'And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
NASB
Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.
NIV
And forgive us our debts, As we forgive our debtors.
NKJV
and forgive us our sins, as we have forgiven those who sin against us.
NLT
Keep us forgiven with you and forgiving others.
MSG