Mark 11:26 AV
But if ye do not forgive¹,
neither will your Father
which is in heaven
forgive¹ your trespasses².
¹) To let go, let alone, let be, disregard.
²) Deviations from truth and uprightness, sins.
Other translations
But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your failings and shortcomings. [AMP] *** Omitted from the main text *** [ESV, NIV, NLT] (Verse 26 is omitted from the best manuscripts). But if ye do not forgive, neither will your Father which is in heaven forgive your trespasses. [KJV] But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses." [NKJV]
Study
But if ye do not forgive
Freely and fully forgive those who have trespassed against you, remit the debts they owe, and pass by the offences and injuries done to you, and put up with everything that affronted you and was indignity to you.
Where men are not of a forgiving temper to their fellow creatures and fellow Christians, how can they expect forgiveness at the hands of God?
Or what sense of pardoning grace can there be upon their minds?
Had they any right apprehensions of the grace and goodness of God, in the forgiveness of their sins, this would influence their minds, and engage their hearts to forgive those who have offended them.
Neither will your heavenly Father … forgive your trespasses
This concerns persons
▪︎ who do not appear to have any true, or right notion of forgiveness;
▪︎ nor show any evidence that their hearts are duly affected, or truly impressed with a sense of forgiveness.
These cannot based upon their own principles and conduct expect to receive what they themselves are not willing to give.
If you do not forgive, it is a plain case, that your Father has not given you a true sense of the pardon of your sins,
▪︎ nor can you be certain that He will;
▪︎ nor have you any reason to expect it,
when you are so cruel and revengeful to others.
There is a considerable emphasis lies upon the word “men”, to which “heavenly Father” is opposed, and the sense, according to it, is, that if men, who are upon an equal foot with each other, should not forgive one another, how should it be expected that our Father which is in heaven, who is so much above, and in no way obliged to us, should forgive us?
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This verse says negatively (‘if not … then not’) what in Mark 11:25 was said positively (‘when … that also’).
The flip side of God’s promise of forgiveness is that He does not forgive when someone is unwilling to forgive others (Matthew 6:15; 18:23-35).
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