10 May 2021
On Mercy
The
hardest commandment to keep is this one: love your enemies. But this is not a
commandment; it is a description of God. It is what God is all about. He loves
His enemies because they are His enemies. He is not their enemy. He has no
enemies. This is what the cross is all about. John says that we should not be
surprised that the world hates us. It comes with being God’s children. What
they did to Jesus, God’s only Son, they do to us. They might hate us, but we do
not hate them, because God has already forgiven them. Even if you know all the
doctrines of the church and your life is of the highest moral quality, if you
do not know love, mercy, and forgiveness, you do not understand Christianity.
But this is not the end of the story. There is a reward. Jesus said avoid
judging and condemning others and you will not be judged by God or condemned on
that one day that really matters. You will be forgiven. He was not speaking
about rewards in this world. They have no real value. Jesus was speaking of
that day when those who have forgiven will be received as God’s son. Everything
“will be given to [them]; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running
over into [their] lap. For the measure they give will be the measure they get
back.” Nothing I have said is new to you. You all know this. “And forgive us
our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.”
Rev. Dr. David P. Scaer
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