Mercy Is To Be Shared
At Queens Church we say that Love is our Mission. But why? Love for others flows from the mercy that God has shown to us in Jesus.
As followers of Jesus, mercy is something we should be very familiar with because we have been given so much of it. God shows his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. This reveals the heart of a merciful God, willing to go to extremes to give forgiveness to us when it is in his power and rights to condemn.
Have you ever noticed that showing mercy can be contagious?
"Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” - Matthew 5:7
When someone forgives you it produces a desire in you to pass that same mercy to others.
Later in the gospel of Matthew Jesus teaches a parable about a man who’s incredible debt is forgiven by his master. This man’s response is to find someone who owes him a fraction of that amount and choke him while the indebted man begged for a little more time to repay what he owed.
When the man’s master who had forgiven the great debt heard of this he had the man captured and tortured until he could repay the originally cancelled amount in full. Jesus ends the story with a thought provoking statement, “this is how the Lord will treat you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”
The essence of the mercy that God shows to us is that it is to be shared with others. Mercy from God should break into action for you and me. A follower of Jesus is given the gift of mercy and this gift is to be handed out liberally to our neighbors, friends, family, and even our enemies.