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Today's Little Lift
by Jim Bullington
Find yourself in the following paragraph: “And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise [Luke’s version of the Golden Rule]. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6.31-36).
Sometimes I want the Golden Rule to read, “And just as you want men to do to you, you shall receive, and just as they deserve, you should give them!” I think that is called having your cake and eating it to. In modern parlance, this would be a win-lose situation – at least on my side of the coin. However, if my neighbor turned that around on me, all of a sudden he would be on the receiving-what-he-wants end, and I would be on the getting-what-I-deserve end! I win when he loses and he wins when I lose. This may be the way we want things as long as the odds are in our favor, but our allegiances change suddenly when the winds of fortune shift in the other direction.
The quality of mercy was injected by the Creator into the human experience. We want to be stingy with mercy towards those who have wronged us, but we wish to be lavishly rewarded when we are on the receiving end. God is not that way. From the Garden of Eden, God has given man better than he deserves. It could be argued that we deserved physical and spiritual death as a result of our disobedience, but God’s mercy sustained the race. From that point forward, not only has He chosen to suspend His right to judge us, He has worked feverishly on our behalf. Every prophet, every scribe, every commandment, every law, every warning, every prophecy, and every occasion of delayed punishment has been as a direct result of His merciful nature. It is He that giveth, and it is He that hath the right to take away, yet He keeps on giving and giving and giving.
When Jesus said that we ought to be merciful as the Father is merciful, He uttered a saying filled to the brim with meaning and depth. How merciful is God? We have touched on that already, but the one fact that must not escape me is the fact that He is merciful towards me! In the smaller scheme of things, it matters not how He treats others; what I care about and what sustains me is the way He treats me. Has He given me what I deserve? A thousands times, “No He has not and I am so thankful that He hasn’t!” Were it not for His beneficent nature, I would be no more. Job was infinitely more godly than I, yet he could not claim goodness as the grounds upon which he could appear before the Father. Neither were his “friends” right when they claimed that he was being punished because of his sin.
The truth that lies buried here is this: We all get better from God than we deserve! It is in this context that Jesus said, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.” (Luke 6.37-38). Mercy is a trait that God epitomizes and which I frequently totally fail to possess. Mercy triumphs over judgment! If I wish to have any mercy at all in final judgment, I must be merciful now!
Questions:
1. How does the Golden Rule relate to being merciful?
2. Why did Job’s friends say he had been stricken by God?
3. Was God merciful in the Old Testament? New Testament? Is He now? Does God’s mercy have limits? If yes, what are they? Are there any conditions under which I may not receive mercy?
4. What is the context of the statement, “Judge not, and you shall not be judged?”
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