And when you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father also, who is in heaven, may forgive your trespasses.
The Lord joins the requirement of forgiveness to the teaching on faith and prayer. This shows that prayer before God cannot be separated from the condition of a person’s heart. If someone stands in prayer but keeps an unforgiving, embittered, or vengeful heart, his prayer is hindered. The one who asks mercy from God must be merciful toward his brother. This does not mean that our forgiving earns God’s forgiveness, but that a forgiving heart shows that a person has truly understood the grace he has received. Whoever does not want to forgive shows that his heart is closed to the mercy by which he himself lives before God.