No, O people, the Lord has told you what is good,
and this is what he requires of you:
to do what is right, to love mercy,
and to walk humbly with your God.
This is a pretty sweet summation of God's expectations for us and, as such, is worth some consideration. Being the rebel that I am, we are starting with the second concept in this statement. Crazy, right? Can't help it. The mercy part just jumps out at me. Why? Because I believe this is the hardest aspect of this verse.
We don't love mercy. It's against our nature. Oh, we think we love it. We love the concept of it, but in reality, mercy is one of our least favorite things. Don't get me wrong. We want people to be merciful to us. We're real into that. But loving mercy on a broader scale means letting the guilty off the hook and that we can't abide. That's kinda the definition of mercy: forgiving the guilty. And even that can sound appealing as a spiritual concept, but in actuality its unpalatable. Think of the practical application of this! It means loving the ability to release your husband from blame after he has cheated on you. It means releasing from blame family who have abandoned you. It means treasuring the opportunity to forgive your betrayer. God expects that from us? He wants us to value this? How are we supposed to pull that off?
We start by understanding the source of this command. It comes from God's character. He loves mercy. He LOVES it! It is a core aspect of who He is, right up there with holiness. Scripture makes it clear that our rebellion, our sin, is primarily directed toward God, regardless of the causalities here on earth. It's a deal-breaker, a separator. It renders us guilty and deserving of punishment. It's also universal. If that's the case, we had better hope the He is at least inclined toward mercy. Lucky for us, it's His preference. This is never more apparent then in a famous confrontation with Jesus.
John, chapter 8, records the story of the woman caught in adultery who is brought to Jesus for punishment. Those who bring her remind Jesus that the Law of Moses (first five books of the O.T.) sentences those caught in this sin to death by stoning. Jesus is more than aware of this (seeing as how He wrote it!), yet He questions the motives of those demanding it. There is little mercy loving going on there. So we have that famous exchange: Jesus offers the first shot to the person who has never rebelled and, put on the spot like that, the accusers all bail out. What happens next is the interesting part for us. Jesus has every right to follow through with punishment. He fits the criteria that He just set. He is sinless. More than that, the woman's offense is directed at Him, offending His holy standard. He should be chucking rocks like He's trying out for the majors. And why stop with this chick? By their own admission, those dudes are sinners! He can pick em off in the back of the head as they run away, Buddy the Elf style! But instead, He says that He won't condemn. Instead, He encourages change. Instead, He loves mercy.
In light of a story like that, our feeble protests that we love mercy are unmasked. We don't want those who have sinned against us to go un-condemned! We want justice! We want punishment! Except when it applies to us. Thankfully, mercy is still beating in His holy heart and His desire is to extend it to all those who would ask. It is His character. How can it be ours? We have to become like Him. We have to spend time with Him and allow the Holy Spirit to reshape our desires. We have to make what is important to Him our priority. We have to practice mercy, choosing to release from guilt those who have offended us. In doing so, a desire for judgement will fade and a love for the act of mercy will remain. And we will do what God requires of us.
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