And when ye stand praying, forgive if ye have anything against any one, that your Father also who is in the heavens may forgive you your offences.
Jesus had cursed a fruitless fig tree the day before. The next morning Peter pointed out that it had withered, and the Lord turned the moment into a lesson on faith and prayer. Before He tells the disciples what prayer can move, He names what must move in them first: anything they hold against someone else.
The Setting: Faith That Moves Mountains
The withered tree pictured a religious system that had failed, and the "mountain" the disciples were told they could move stood for the nation that looked immovable to them. One writer traces how the Lord's promise about faith runs straight into a second requirement:
The fig tree symbolized the people in their religious pretensions, now clearly empty, and so judged by Him whose right it was and is. So "this mountain" seems to mean rather their "place and nation," which in their unbelief they worked hard to keep under Roman protection... Strong as it stood in Jewish eyes, before the faith of the disciples it was doomed, and soon to be violently uprooted and lost in the sea of Gentiles. Such is the declared power of faith. But one more thing is needed, and faith itself would produce it: the spirit of gracious forgiveness toward anyone who might have wronged or otherwise offended us.
Two Things Prayer Requires
The Lord ties two things together in one sentence, and one writer takes the pair into the prayer meeting:
Two things are necessary if our prayers are to be heard and answered: faith towards God and forgiveness towards all others. The Lord Himself has joined them together in these memorable words, and we must not separate what He has joined together... Two brothers kneel in the same prayer meeting. Their being there shows that they have some faith in God. But they have hard and unforgiving thoughts towards each other, and their prayers are empty words.
Why Prayers Go Unanswered
The promise about faith comes with a moral condition, and one writer names what it costs to ignore it:
He assures His disciples that whatever they asked in faith would be done. But to make sure of this they must walk and act in grace, if they would enjoy this privilege. If you pray for something to be done, there must be forgiveness "if you have anything against anyone." I have no doubt why we so often get no answers to our prayers. Our hearts are not right before God in this respect. We keep up some old grudge instead of dismissing it for ever.
Which Forgiveness Is Meant
The verse says "your Father who is in heaven." The Lord is speaking to people already in that relationship. So the forgiveness here is a father's dealing with his children, not the settling of eternal guilt:
In the heavenly Father's holy government of His children, the unforgiving spirit comes under His discipline. If someone commits an offence against us and we refuse to forgive, we will miss God's governmental forgiveness. This is not a question of forgiveness for eternity. Those He was speaking to were disciples, and for them that great matter was already settled.
So what is lost is nearness to God, and a second writer shows how deep that loss goes:
If we do not forgive, we are not forgiven as children. Communion with God our Father is put on hold. His Spirit within us is grieved. To go on as though all were right is presumption; it is insincerity and displeasing to God. True prayer is communion with God. It is speaking to Him with the confidence of a heart that does not condemn us.
How Wide the Forgiveness Reaches
"Anyone" leaves no one out, and a forgiving heart is not the same as pretending wrong never happened:
Whoever it may be that we have anything against, we must have a thoroughly forgiving spirit toward them. This does not mean that God's assembly should restore them to fellowship while they continue in sinful disobedience. But our personal attitude must be one of willingness to forgive. If it is not so, how can we expect God to forgive our own trespasses and answer our prayers favourably?
Standing to Pray
The posture in the verse is simply the ordinary one of the people the Lord was speaking to:
Standing was, and remains, the usual posture of Jews in prayer... The scriptural postures are either standing (Abraham, in Gen. 18:22; compare Jer. 15:1, of Moses and Samuel), or kneeling (Solomon, Daniel, our Lord in Luke 22:41, Stephen, Peter, Paul).
Summary
- Faith first. Mountain-moving prayer rests on faith in God, and that same faith produces a spirit that forgives.
- Forgiveness with it. The Lord joined believing prayer and a forgiving heart; we are not free to separate them.
- Father, not Judge. The forgiveness at stake is a father's dealing with his children. The eternal question is already settled for those who believe.
- Communion is the cost. An unforgiving heart puts fellowship with the Father on hold. Praying on as if all were well is insincerity.
- No exceptions. "Anyone" means anyone. The willingness to forgive must be personal, whoever the offender is.