In the parable of the unforgiving servant, the Lord tells us the master of this servant

…was angry and delivered him to the tormentors until he should repay all that was owed.
— Matthew 18:34

As we saw in the previous Note, this does not speak of believers losing their salvation, but rather, of a very serious, though temporary, discipline from the Lord when we see Him, based upon how we lived our Christian life in this age. (See “The Unforgiving Servant (3): ‘Until He Should Repay…’”)

And the warning the Lord draws from this parable for His disciples clearly shows it is meant for the believers:

So will My heavenly Father do to you also if you do not forgive your brother, each of you, from your hearts.
— Matthew 18:34

So, if the punishment of the unforgiving servant is only temporary, and does not signify the loss of salvation, then when will this punishment take place?

The answer is, during the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth.

Many, many Christians fail to appreciate the significance of this coming dispensation, which is often called “the millennium”; some even deny the clear teaching of the Bible on this matter and teach, falsely, that there will be no millennial reign of Christ at all, but that instead, after this present age we will go directly into eternity. (See, for example, the Note, “Why the Demons are Not Amillennial”; and also the podcast series, “The End of Amillenialism.”)

In fact, the Bible is very clear and definite in this regard, that at the end of this age Satan will be bound for 1,000 years (Rev. 20:3), and then the overcoming believers will reign with Christ during the millennial age (Rev. 20:4-6).

And though Christ, through His believers, will be reigning over the earth in righteousness at this time, it will not yet be a time of perfection; that will have to wait for the eternal ages.

Moreover, while the overcoming believers will be reigning with Christ, this 1,000 year period (or at least part of it) will be a time of suffering, loss, and discipline for those believers who were not faithful to follow Christ in this present age. In some cases these ones will even, like the unforgiving servant, be “delivered…to the tormentors” until they should “repay all that was owed.”

Still, after the 1,000 years, all the believers in Christ will enter into a state of blessing in which they will reign with Christ “from the ages to the ages” (Rev. 22:5), that is, “forever and ever.”

The Bible only gives us hints, here and there, of what the discipline during the millennium will be like. But in the next Note in this series we will consider what we do, and don’t, know about the Lord’s reward and discipline of His people during His 1,000 year reign upon the earth.

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—  12 July 2025 —