Before reading this passage from the Bible, I would like to make a couple comments about the two people in this story – these two people are complete opposites.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
This year, God has taught me much about contentment.  What should we pursue?  Verse 11 below tells us…  pursue righteousness, Godliness, faith, love, patience, and gentleness.
 
 
 
1 Timothy 6:6-12

Matthew 18:21-22 Then Peter came to Him and said, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Up to seven times?”  Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven."
 
 
This afternoon, I was reading this text and was struck by how much God has forgiven me.  When we consider the amount of sin that we have done against God (and that he has forgiven us) we should be humbled and very willing to forgive others who have sinned against us.
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come. 1 Timothy 4:8
 

 
Proverbs 3:13-22

Psalm 51:6b Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being
Many people today tell me that they follow God by going to church or praying or being nice.  Those are great things.  However, God is primarily concerned with the heart.  The Bible says that man’s heart is deceitful and desperately wicked.  Even though we might live externally good lives (according to what society tells us), we were born with sinful hearts.
 

Philippians 2:5-11

1 Corinthians 6:19-20 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?  For you were bought at a price; therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are Gods.
 
For Christians, we have been bought with a price – the precious price of the blood of Jesus and have new hearts that love God and desire to please God.