Righteousness or Mercy?

Righteousness or Mercy?

Earlier, I talked a bit about attitude. The opposite of true self-respect, attitude demands respect without offering to show it in return. It masquerades as a virtue in today's society; it is expected to repay the slightest disrespect in kind, with interest. The harsher your response to the offenses of others, the more you are to be admired. Attitude is known in the Bible as pride, and it is something God so despises that He promises to fight against those who display it. (Jas. 4:6). I mentioned that mercy and attitude, or pride, are incompatible. One of the reasons for this is those filled with pride don't believe they have need of mercy. Christians can often suffer from this attitude, confusing pride and lack of mercy with righteousness.

The greatest expression of the Father's mercy toward us is the Atonement. By becoming flesh and blood, living a sinless life, and dying on the Cross, God proved He was not some distant, demanding deity bent on destroying all evildoers. Rather, the life, death and resurrection of Jesus leaves no doubt that God was willing to endure what we endure and meet us at our level in order to reconcile us to Himself. Most Christians have an attitude of humility and contrition whenever they consider the Atonement. This is really the only reasonable attitude we can have in light of what the Atonement means.

But then, pride creeps in and some believers get the idea that they are somehow "better" than non-Christians. This is bad enough, but this attitude can extend into thinking they are better than anyone who doesn't hold their own doctrinal views, or belong to their denomination, or even read the same version of the Bible. Can any of us, by any stretch of the imagination or twisting of scripture, actually justify such self-righteousness in light of what scripture says about how to view ourselves as compared to others? (Take a look at Phil. 2:3)

Actually, many Christians can justify this attitude, at least within their own minds.

In Jesus' day, some men called Pharisees did the same thing. This is what Jesus had to say to them when they confronted Him with the "sins" of plucking grains of wheat on the Sabbath:

But if you had known what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice,' you would not have condemned the guiltless. Matt. 12:4

Christians tend to engage in "sacrifices" of attitude. We think in ways we believe God wants us to think, and so we assume we are right before God for doing so. We think, act and speak in certain ways in order to please God, often not realizing that we are failing to offer the very thing the Bible tells us is a true sacrifice to the Lord.

The sacrifices of God are a broken sprit; A broken and contrite heart-these O God, you will not despise. Ps. 51:17

But, Jesus said God doesn't even want our sacrifices: He wants us to show mercy. When Christians begin to assume that we can use the "religious" things we do to justify or cover over lack of mercy, then what Jesus has to say is even harsher:

Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, 'Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?' And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!' Matt. 7:21-23

"Wait a minute", you may be thinking. "Jesus isn't talking about Christians in this passage. He's talking about people who think that acting "spiritual" and doing things in Jesus' Name earns them a place in Heaven. Christians are already forgiven, and don't have to worry about this. He was talking about Pharisees and people like them." True. A Christian, a real one, seeks above all else to become like Jesus (Who showed more mercy toward others than any of us could ever hope to show). Unfortunately, if you had this thought (which happens to be one I entertained a lot myself) then you have just described what passes for being a "Christian" in many peoples' minds. A great many people view being a Christian in terms of what they do for God, not who they are in Christ.

Take a look at what Jesus says about who will enter the kingdom of heaven "but he who does the will of My Father in heaven". What is the will of the Father? Well, go back to Matthew 12:4. The Father desires mercy. The will of the Father (in part) is that we show to others the same mercy that God has shown us. When confronted with this, some Christians take the attitude that as long as they are not doing anything "sinful" then they are doing the will of the Father. But, this is exactly the way the Pharisees thought. They kept the Law: even Jesus recognized that (Mt. 23:2). But they forgot that one of the purposes of the Law was to provide a way of showing just how much we need God's mercy. There is nothing wrong with trying to live a life of holiness and sanctification by observing God's commandments. The trap is that this can become a source of pride.

Pride. Attitude. When your life is dominated by pride, not only do you lack the capacity to show mercy to others, but you also have a hard time asking God for mercy as well. Don't fool yourself into thinking this isn't the case. There is a substitute for mercy called condescension. You go through the motions of forgiving another for an offense, but only because you view that person as somehow beneath you. I've struggled with this pitfall myself. It cost me a lot before I finally started listening to the Holy Spirit and realized my mistakes. I found myself crying out to God for mercy, only to find that I was receiving from God according to the same measure I had meted out to others (Lk. 6:38). I had shown little mercy toward others, so God showed me little mercy. Fortunately, a little of God's mercy goes a long way. Especially when it's all you've got left to cling to.

Who do you show mercy to? Everyone! Show the most to those whom you feel deserve it the least. Don't wait for them to ask for it, or prove they've earned it. Just show it. When you do show it, don't make a point of it. Do it in humility, or else it's not really mercy. I guarantee you that the only reason you can't be merciful to others is because of your own pride, not anything they have done.

A good way to learn to walk in mercy is to do a little "exercising". Each of us has certain things others do that can really annoy us. For me it's driving habits. I can get pretty steamed when people cut me off or change lanes without signaling, etc. So, I work at being merciful by asking God to bless any drivers who do that sort of thing. (I'd really like to say that I do it all the time, but lying is a sin.) Try it. Think of something other people do that really irks you. Then, determine to pray a blessing on anyone that annoys or offends you. If you have trouble "getting in the mood" to do this, "warm up" by thinking of all the things you've done to annoy or offend God, and the mercy He bestowed on you in return. Before long, you will find mercy so abounding in your life that you are offended or annoyed less and less by trivial things. If the offense is a valid or major one, you will find the cultivation of mercy will make it much easier to handle the situation as Jesus would, and resolve the conflict in a constructive way.

But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. Eph. 2:4-7