Matthew 6:14 teaches that the forgiveness you give to other people is connected to the forgiveness you receive from God. Jesus says that when you forgive those who have wronged you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Jesus spoke these words in the Sermon on the Mount, addressing a crowd of disciples and listeners who had gathered to hear his teaching on how to live as members of God’s kingdom.
“For if you forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Matthew 6:14 (WEB)
What Matthew 6:14 Means
The verse opens with “For if you forgive,” which makes the statement conditional and ties it to what has just been said in the Lord’s Prayer. The word “men” here refers to people in general, so the forgiveness Jesus has in mind is toward anyone who has hurt you, not only friends or family. The phrase “their trespasses” means the wrongs, offenses, or debts people commit against you.
The second half, “your heavenly Father will also forgive you,” describes God’s response. Jesus is not saying that you earn forgiveness by forgiving others, since the gospel as a whole makes clear that forgiveness comes from God’s mercy. Instead, he is saying that a heart which has truly received God’s forgiveness will naturally extend it to others, and that an unforgiving heart shows it has not fully grasped what it was given.
The verse does not promise that forgiving someone will make the hurt disappear or that the other person will change. It also does not suggest that God withholds forgiveness from people who struggle to forgive. Jesus frames this as a reality about the shape of a life lived under God’s grace, not a transaction with a fixed price.
The Context of Matthew 6:14
Matthew’s Gospel was traditionally attributed to Matthew, one of the twelve disciples, and was likely written for a community of Jewish Christians who knew the Hebrew Scriptures well. The Sermon on the Mount, in chapters 5 through 7, presents Jesus as a new teacher of the law who calls his hearers to a righteousness that goes deeper than outward religious practice.
Verse 14 sits in the middle of the Lord’s Prayer, which runs from verse 9 to 13. Just before it, in verse 12, the prayer asks God to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors, and verse 14 expands on that line. Right after it, in verses 15 and 16, Jesus repeats the warning in the negative and moves on to the practice of fasting. Reading the verse within this sequence shows that forgiveness is part of the daily prayer life Jesus is teaching, not a separate topic.
Key Phrases in Matthew 6:14
Ephesians 4:32
And be kind to one another, tender hearted, forgiving each other, just as God also in Christ forgave you.
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Paul’s exhortation to be kind and tenderheartedly forgiving, just as God forgave us in Christ, restates the same pattern found in Matthew 6:14. It grounds the call to forgive in the forgiveness we have already received, which helps the teaching of Jesus feel less like a burden and more like an invitation to live in gratitude.
Colossians 3:13
Bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do.
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This verse, written to the church at Colossae, asks believers to bear with one another and forgive whatever complaint they have against someone, following the Lord’s own forgiveness. It shows that the practice Jesus describes was carried into the everyday life of early Christian communities.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 6:14
Father in heaven, you have forgiven me more than I could ever repay, and I thank you for your mercy. Some wounds still ache in my heart, and I confess that I have held onto them longer than I should. Soften my heart toward the people who have hurt me. Help me release what I have been holding and trust you with justice and healing. Let your forgiveness flow through me to others, for your name’s sake. Amen.
