Forgiving and Forgiven

There is a difference in wording between the Lord's Prayer in Matthew’s Gospel and the Lord’s Prayer in Luke’s Gospel. The text in Matthew reads: “forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.” The text in Luke reads: “forgive us our sins for we ourselves forgive everyone in debt to us.” Both texts include the two aspects of forgiveness. Both Matthew and Luke understand that God has forgiven us our debts in Jesus Christ. Having thus been restored to good relationship with God, we have received the grace to forgive others. Therefore, we are called to forgive the debts of others as we have received this same forgiveness from God.