When they could not pay, he cancelled the debt of both. Now which of them will love him more?”
When and where this passage of story happened does not appear; this evangelist does not observe order of time in his narrative so much as the other evangelists do; but it comes in here, upon occasion of Christ's being reproached as a friend to publicans and sinners, to show that it was only for their good, and to bring them to repentance, that he conversed...
Commenting on Luke 7:36-50
Mine head with oil thou didst not anoint,.... No not with common oil, so usually done at feasts, see Psa 23:5 but this woman hath anointed my feet with ointment; even "with ointment" "of spices", as the Syriac version renders it.
Verse 42. Frankly forgave. Freely forgave, or forgave entirely without any compensation. This is not designed to express anything about the way in which God forgives sinners. He forgives-- forgives freely, but it is in connection with the atonement made by the Lord Jesus. If it was a mere debt which we owed to God, he might forgive, as this creditor did, without any equivalent.