Inner Forgiveness in Matthew 18

Neville's Inner Vision

Think of this scene as a parable of states of consciousness. The 'lord' is the I AM, the awareness that forgives you, and the 'fellowservant' is a lesser state within you that you still cling to as separate. When you awaken to pity—the very grace you have been shown—you cannot hold over another the debt of grievance. To punish the other is to punish your own sense of separation; the 'tormentors' are the guilty thoughts you keep alive by reviling another. In Neville's sense, mercy is not a gesture toward another but a reinvestment in your own inner being. When you exercise compassion at the level of attitude, you collapse the distance between you and your imagined debtor, and the scene dissolves into harmony. The moment you imagine the other as forgiven, you invite your own memory of fault to soften, and the law of consequence loses its grip because you no longer treat suffering as punishment but as a shift of consciousness. Your world responds to the quality of your inner feeling; choose pity now, and you unlock the kingdom within.