Forgiveness and judgment

I've been reading in Matthew for some daily reading and in Romans in prep for a Bible study and actually had this convergence of two different but similar concepts.

The first is about forgiveness as told by Jesus. The second is about judgement as relayed by Paul.

The passage on forgiveness is found in Matthew 18:23-35:

"Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

"The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.' The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.

"But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.

"His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'

"But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.

"Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?' In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

"This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

The lesson here is pretty clear: if you burn down a million dollar house and the owner forgives you, don't go haywire on someone who torches your shed.

Let's face it: all we have done has been forgiven. There is nothing someone can do to us that is as great as what has been forgiven us. Holding a grudge against someone is just like holding a grudge against that person who torched the shed.

Likewise, Paul talks about judgement in much the same way in Romans 2:1-4:

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth. So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God's judgment? Or do you show contempt for the riches of his kindness, tolerance and patience, not realizing that God's kindness leads you toward repentance?

This deals more with hypocrisy, somewhat on the level of each individual action, but also on the whole: if you do bad things, don't judge others for doing bad things. The key is this verse:

Now we know that God's judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.

We don't know they entire situation. God does. Let him deal with it.

Forgive and don't judge. It's required.