His fellow servant fell down before his feet, pleaded, and said, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you everything.”
The fellow servant addresses him with the same words that this servant had just spoken to his master: he pleads for patience and promises to pay the debt in full. This parallel clearly highlights the parable’s main message. The fellow servant shows humility, asking not to be forgiven, but simply to be given a little time. His conduct is fair, within the limits of what is possible. Here it is expected that the servant who had received forgiveness from the king—who owed far more and had received mercy in every way—would respond with compassion and a readiness to forgive. But in the next verse we see the opposite, which sharpens the contrast within the parable: to receive forgiveness, yet not to live with a forgiving heart.