Mercy is the middle requirement of the justice, mercy, and humility requirements. This daily devotional looks at how mercy should be at the heart level.
Nuggets
- Disciples must be merciful in order to witness to others.
Devotions in the Where Are You At with the Requirements? series
We ran across this verse in Micah when we did Humility – The Test of Character. It told us of what God requires from us.
We’ve looked at humility and justice. We’ll finish off the series looking at mercy.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
Let's Put It into Context
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Loving Mercy
“He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” (Mic. 6: 8 ESV)
Disciples must be merciful in order to witness to others.
Being just alone isn’t enough. Light described why that is. He wrote, “To be just, strictly just, honest, upright, is indeed something, but it is not all. A man may be very honest, and yet very selfish; indeed, justice and mercy are somewhat antagonistic virtues, and are not often found existing together.”
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Logan took it another way. He argued that we would need to be just in Heaven — but not merciful. Here, on earth, we have to be merciful when the issues needing us to be just arise.
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We won’t need to be merciful in Heaven because we will have a changed heart. It will already be merciful.
There is a distinction here. Micah did not say to show mercy. He said we need to to love mercy.
True, I am not quite sure how we do one without the other. Disciples’ mercy is a characteristic of compassion for the needs of others, especially those who are in distress, because of gratitude to God.
To me, mercy is the product of love. It is the action to the emotion.
Gisborne argued that it is is an amalgamation so several other things.
- Affection/Compassion
- Benevolence
- Kindness
- Tenderness
- Mildness
- Meekness
- Patience
- Forgiveness
- By every other expression which implies goodwill to men.
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We’re not going to have the mercy if we don’t have the justice. The just are those men and women who have been regenerated and who live lives showing evidence they are following God’s laws and commandments and fulfilling every moral obligation.
Case in point: worldview people today. They like to think they are much more merciful than disciples. However, they are only merciful to those who think like they do.
Glossary
That isn’t tying the mercy to being just. Justice plays no favorites.
This is one aspect that God is working on when we navigate the Sanctification Road. He is working to make us like Him.
God’s mercy is an act of sovereign will that produces an unexpected and undeserved response from God as He responds in love to our needs.
Sanctification is the transformation of mind, body, and soul, which begins with regeneration, gradually changes our nature and morals through the promptings of the Holy Spirit, and ends with perfected state of spiritual wholeness or completeness.
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
- Perfection means we reach a state of maturity because the combination of the spiritual graces form, when all are present, spiritual wholeness or completeness — holy, sanctified, and righteous.
- Spiritual graces are worldly morals that have been submitted to God to further His kingdom instead of enhancing this world.
- Sanctified means to be set free from sin.
- Righteous means we are free from sin because we are following God’s moral laws.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
Glossary
We’ve talked about motives lately. Disciples have to be merciful based on kindness. We aren’t looking for our benefit. We are looking for their’s.
Chapin reminded us that mercy must be the foundation of our witness. Witnessing means we tell non-believers that Jesus can be their personal Savior.
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Why is mercy the foundation of witnessing? It is the foundation of forgiveness.
God loves us so much that He has mercy on us and forgives us of our sins.
Forgiveness is, when we ask, the act of God pardoning us because we have shown repentance for breaking His laws and commandments, which allows us to become holy as He is.
- Repentance is acknowledging our separation from God and expressing sorrow for breaking God’s laws and commandments by making the commitment to changing ourselves through obedience so that we no longer do the wrong things.
Sins are actions by humans that disobey God and break one of His reasonable, holy, and righteous laws and commandments, goes against a purpose He has for us, or follows Satan’s promptings.
- Holy means to be set apart — because of our devotion to God — to become perfect, and morally pure while possessing all virtues.
Glossary
It is possible that some worldview people think Daniel 4: 27 is about using mercy to obtain salvation. I don’t think so.
“Therefore, O king, let my counsel be acceptable to you: break off your sins by practicing righteousness, and your iniquities by showing mercy to the oppressed, that there may perhaps be a lengthening of your prosperity” (Dan. 4: 27 ESV).
We have to know what iniquities means. Iniquities are sins of wanting to be like everyone else instead of God.
Worldview people want to see mercy as being kind to others. The problem is they don’t want to be like God.
You see, the problem is we can’t base mercy on the worldview definition to get worldview adulations. It has nothing to do with entitlement.
It is all about being the action of showing the righteousness that God has given us.
Making the Connections #1
Light said mercy has nothing to do with pride. He wrote, “The man who prides himself upon his integrity not unfrequently makes it an excuse for uncharitableness. The more highly, then, any one prides himself upon his justice, the more reason he has to examine himself on the point of mercy. Are you always tender hearted, — ready to forgive, — treating others with due consideration and kindness, and putting the most charitable construction on all their actions?”
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To me, that is one reason the New Testament stresses this theme. It is all about our humility to God’s greatness.
Making the Connections #2
When we think about justice, mercy, and humility together, we do see that progression. The just are those men and women who have been regenerated and who live lives showing evidence they are following God’s laws and commandments and fulfilling every moral obligation.
The foundation has to be our salvation. Without that, the mercy and humility mean nothing.
With that, the mercy and humility get down to the heart level. These are how we show we have salvation.
How Do We Apply This?
- We have to be flexible enough to show mercy.
- Make mercy a habit.
- Use mercy to become a better listener to others.
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Father God. We praise You for Your love and mercy toward us. Help us to show that to others. May we walk humbly before You, acknowledging You are Sovereign Lord. It is our goal this year to ensure we get that down to the heart level. Amen.
What do you think?
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