The Mercy in Love

The title of the split sermon I'd like to give today is, The Mercy in Love. The title is, The Mercy in Love. You know, over the past few years, we have been learning so very much about God's love and about our need to love God and to love neighbor. We know now more than ever that to love God and neighbor is not just some fuzzy, sentimental sort of feeling. To love God and neighbor means an obligation to obey God's law of love. In 1 John 13, 34, we're going to go through a few scriptures, lay a foundation here. In John 13, we'll all be doing better. In John 13, verses 34-35, Jesus during the final Passover he spent with his disciples, he taught them, saying, If you have love for one another. In Paul, in Romans 3, Paul, I think it's my glasses, it's in Romans 13. I'm sorry. This is going to be fun. Paul in Romans 13, verses 8-10, he writes, This is the fulfillment of the law. Then in Galatians 5.14, we read, John, 1 John 3, John writes here, and skipping over to 1 John 4, 1 John 4, 19, We love him because he first loved us. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? In this commandment we have from him that he who loves God must love his brother also. Then skipping down to the next chapter, 1 John 5.2, we read this, By this we know that we love the children of God when we love God and keep his commandments. Very quickly and clearly, I think we can see that we love God when we keep his commandments. Yet we cannot love God unless we love one another. Eternal life requires that we love one another. That's also Paul's point in 1 Corinthians 13. 1 Corinthians 13, verses 1-3. Paul states, Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not love, I have become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing. Nothing we know or do matters unless we practice love. Now, we certainly believe these scriptures, I know. But how should we apply love in our interactions with one another? Now, as you know, the Bible is chocked full, filled with the how-to of godly love. But today, I would have us focus on one fundamental aspect of God's love, mercy. Let's begin in Luke 10 with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In Luke 10, the parable of the Good Samaritan, now I know we have known this since forever, as it may seem, but I find it's one parable that always instructs. In Luke 10, 28, Jesus has just told a lawyer that his answer is correct. You shall love the Lord, the Eternal your God, with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself. To inherit eternal life, one must love God and neighbor. But the lawyer, in verse 29, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, And who is my neighbor? Well, Jesus then tells this parable, this parable beginning in verse 30 of chapter 10 of Luke. Then Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, who stripped him of his clothing, wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.

Now, by chance, a certain priest came down the road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. Likewise, a Levite, when he arrived at that place, came and looked, and passed by on the other side. Now, the priest and Levite would certainly have known the same parts of the law the lawyer had just quoted, but they failed to do them.

In verse 33, continuing, But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was, and he saw him, and had compassion. So he went to him, and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine, and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him. On the next day, when he departed, he took out two denarii, and gave them to the inn caper, and said to him, Take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you. Verse 36, Jesus asked, So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves? And he, the lawyer, said, He who showed mercy on him. Then Jesus said to him, Go, and do likewise.

So Christ's lesson is so clear here that even the lawyer understood it. Even the lawyer, and even everybody I think has ever read this parable throughout the ages. Knowing the words of God's law of love is simply not enough. We must live by it. Specifically, as this parable tells us, to live by God's law means that we must be practicing mercy.

The Greek word here for mercy is elyos, e-l-e-o-s. It has the meaning of kindness or goodwill towards the miserable and the afflicted, and it's also joined with the desire to help them. Common synonyms in English for mercy include compassion, pity, forgiveness, and understanding. Mercy is both something we receive and something we must give. To fulfill God's law and to become like God, we must practice mercy towards others. We mustn't forget, shouldn't we, that God first had mercy on all of us. And Paul makes that point very clear in Ephesians 2. Let's look at this reminder Paul gives us in Ephesians 2, please.

Ephesians 2, verse 1. Here we read, Well, it reminds us here that all humanity is enslaved by Satan, the world's God, and so once were we. And we too were once dead through sin. But continuing in verse 4, Paul adds, So because of God's gift of mercy, every human being receives the opportunity, we know, to choose a life of humble submission to God. Now God calls some people before others to become firstfruits, and we'll likely learn a whole lot more about that tomorrow. But all will be given the opportunity to live life God's way, God's vast, bountiful expression of mercy when we think about it. When we think about it, isn't it just truly astonishing? Astounding. I think I created a new word. Astounding and astonishing at the same time.

However, we don't just get God's mercy, as I said. God expects us to give mercy too. Jesus emphasizes this point back in Luke 6. Back in Luke 6, verse 35.

To become like our Father, we must be merciful to all, and not just to the people we like, which is pretty easy to do, but we must be merciful also to all those who hate us and hate the way we live. To be merciful means we must do more than just help people in their physical need, as we read in the parable of the Good Samaritan. It also means that we mustn't return evil for evil. We mustn't seek vengeance. We mustn't retaliate. We must take control of our anger and wrong attitudes when we've been mistreated especially. We must forgive hurts and slights, both the real ones and the ones we imagine. We must hold our tongues, and might I add, hold our fingers on the keypads as well. And not spread gossip, half-truths, or even things that are true, but unnecessary and harmful to repeat. Now, if you ask me, and I know a little bit about this, mercy takes a lot of effort. It takes a lot of effort. That God expects us to put on with the help of His Holy Spirit His own merciful, compassionate, and forgiving nature.

But we'll probably never be as kind and as considerate as we need to be all the time. But that mustn't stop us from trying harder to be merciful in what we think and what we say and do. And the fact is, we really have no choice but to keep trying. You see, if we want God to be merciful to us, then we must be merciful to others. That's that reciprocal give-and-take nature, quality of mercy. It goes both ways. It's how it works. If we go back to Luke 6, just where we were, and continue on at Luke 6, 37, Jesus had this.

I want a measurement like that. In James 2, 13.

James 2, 13 echoes these words of Jesus. For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment. If we want mercy, we must give mercy. If we want forgiveness, we must give forgiveness. So whoever would follow Jesus Christ must be merciful to all. And we must especially practice mercy towards one another. We are brethren, after all, brothers and sisters in Christ. In our spiritual well-being, and as we have heard earlier, even our hope for eternal life, that all depends on how well we practice mercy, compassion, pity, kindness, understanding, forgiveness, whatever you want to call it. We have to practice it with one another. In fact, we need each other very badly. You see, there's something called sin. Sin is always ready to ambush us and draw us away, every one of us away from the path we walk on. Sin will never let us be, not a single one of us. Sin often occurs in an unexpected moment of weakness. We blow up in hate and do something simply dreadful. Perhaps we succumb to a habit we thought we had overcome long ago. We may collapse under an addiction that never gives us peace. We may even fall down under the shame of a secret sin made known. We may simply yield to a temptation we have never before encountered. We make the wrong choice and we commit what is to us a most grievous sin. And with that realization, when that realization of sin finally hits us, it hits us hard, right in the gut. Shame, guilt, self-loathing all rise up at once and devastate us. In those moments of despair, God's mercy may seem all too far away. And overwhelmed by sin, we may be tempted to do even more sin, or even to give up the fight and forsake God's calling entirely. Who would ever want to help us at times like those?

Would anybody even be capable of helping us in the way we need when we sin? Well, brethren, these times happen, don't they? And I will add, it's a foul trick of self-deception to believe that sin can never ambush us and overwhelm us, no matter who we are and how strong we may think we are. These are the times, though, when we most need a brother or a sister in Christ to help us bear up and not be crushed under sin's heavy weight.

But will we be strong enough spiritually to give the love and mercy that's needed? We need to be. Because that's the obligation we bear for each other as followers of Jesus Christ. Let's turn to Galatians 6 and learn more about this obligation. Galatians 6, verse 1 through 5. Galatians 6, verse 1 through 5. Paul writes this, Now at first reading, we might find Paul's meaning here a bit confusing. You see, he talks in verse 2 about bearing one another's burdens, and then in verse 5 about each one bearing his own load. Seems a little confusing at first. But he's really not contradicting himself. We just need to read this a little more closely to understand what he's talking about.

So let's go back to verse 1 and read carefully. He said, Now Paul describes what happens when one of us is caught off guard at that vulnerable moment and has a lapse of judgment and becomes utterly devastated by sin. The word overtaken means to be taken by surprise before we can flee or conceal our crime. And the word trespass here means a lapse or a deviation from truth and uprise. It's a slip-up. It's still a sin.

But we slip up. Now this brother, because he's talking to brethren, this brother has been surprised or ambushed by sin, and he needs to be treated with gentleness and mercy. That's why he needs someone who is spiritual. And the word here is nomaticos. That means one who is filled with and governed by the Spirit of God to restore, meaning to repair or mend him from the damage sin has done.

But yet, Paul adds his warning at the verse of end 1, considering yourself lest you also be tempted. Those spiritual ones who act to restore this person, so they must also be mindful not to be tempted to sin, such as the same sin that's just occurred.

But Paul's warning, though it's well taken, his words do seem to suggest something else we need to be careful. Some other temptation, not just the sin of this one who has fallen into that sin, there's something else we need to be aware of, not to be tempted to do. We're going to read more about that in the following sentences. Verse 2, Paul says, Bear one another's burdens and so fulfill the law of Christ. Here, burdens means excessive heaviness or trouble of bearing a weight too heavy for a person to bear alone. Burdens suggest that excessive weight of sin.

And that's the sin, the help and sin this brother needs. He needs us out of love for God and for neighbor. He needs the help of a brother. Yet Paul hastens, Dad, in verse 3, that those who help must be humble. We must be humble and devoid of a judgmental or condemning attitude of any sense of spiritual superiority. Paul writes, if anyone thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. In other words, we are all prone to sin. We know that. And if we think we are somehow spiritually better or immune to sin, we are deceiving ourselves.

We shouldn't be looking down our noses at our brother caught in sin. That's totally wrong. Verse 4, but let each one examine his own work and then he will have rejoicing in himself alone and not in another. If we'd examine ourselves and recognize our own struggle with sin, then when we go to help a brother, we'd remember that God's mercy in us provides the power of the Holy Spirit.

I need and you need. We all need to fight sin. We are spiritually incapable of fighting sin alone. True rejoicing then occurs when we recognize God's saving grace and mercy at work in us and through us as we help to restore a brother in the faith.

Never, never should we rejoice in the sins of another, somehow believing that our brother's fall makes us spiritually superior. Such thinking is self-centered pride. It's callousness, the absolute option of love and mercy.

Verse 5, for each one shall bear his own load. What's that load? Just as God gives of himself to help us fight sin, God wants us to give of ourselves through love and mercy to help each other in our struggle with sin. That is the load, the suitable and appropriate burden we each bear. Do you remember what Jesus said in John 15? I know you do. Trick question. John 15, 12, 13. I'll just read it for you. Jesus said, This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one in this than to lay down one's life for his friends.

We lay down our lives to humbly and gently restore brother overtaken by sin and help him bear up under the heavy weight of sin. When we do that, we fulfill God's commandment to love one another.

You know, I'm always amazed. I'm always amazed, and I shouldn't be, but I am, and I think that's great. We should be. But the Word of God is so incredibly consistent.

Paul's instruction here in Galatians 6-5, you see, it's really the same instruction Jesus Christ gives us about mercy in the parable of the Good Samaritan.

This spiritual component of restoring a brother in sin seems to be a deeper lesson of the parable.

Now, let's consider this parable as also being a lesson about restoring a brother overtaken by sin.

I want to go back and reread it, but I'm going to add a layer of spirituality to this based on what we see in Galatians 6-1-5.

If we go back to Luke 10 and read these lines again of the parable, let's think of it this way based on Galatians 6-1-5.

A certain man, a brother in the faith, went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, a narrow path, and he fell among thieves, was ambushed by sin, who stripped him of his reputation and virtue, wounded him, shamed and humiliated him, and departed, leaving him half-dead, abandoned, and spiritually devastated.

Now, by chance, a certain priest, one who considered himself spiritually something, came down that road, and when he saw him, he passed by the other side.

Of course, he failed to be merciful, to love his brother.

And likewise, at Levite, another one who considered himself spiritually something, when he arrived at the place, came and looked and passed by on the other side.

He also failed to be merciful and to love his brother.

But a certain Samaritan, a spiritual nothing in the eyes of these spiritual somethings, as he journeyed, also on this narrow path, he came where he was, and when he saw him, he had compassion.

So he went to him and bandaged his wounds. He acted with mercy to restore him spiritually, pouring on oil, a symbol of the Holy Spirit, healing.

And wine, a symbol of the shed blood of Christ, forgiveness.

And he set him on his own animal, bearing his brother's burden.

He brought him to an end, a place to rest, of refreshing, and took care of him.

He put aside his own cares to restore his brother.

On the next day, when he departed, the Samaritan returned to his own journey on the narrow path.

But he took out two denarii. A denarii was the equivalent of a day's wages.

So two makes this a very generous act, and I think it's an act of generous compassion.

And he gave them to the innkeeper and said to him, take care of him, and whatever more you spend, when I come again, I will repay you.

Well, that's a promise of continued love and mercy.

I hadn't really realized the connection between the two before, and it's incredible, I think.

So, brethren, I do suggest that the parable of the Good Samaritan also instructs us on the profound obligation we have to render spiritual aid to one another, when anytime we're overwhelmed and devastated by sin.

You know, who else—think about this—who else, apart from God, is able to provide the spiritual help we need than us, we brothers and sisters in Christ.

Who else would help us? Certainly not the world.

Spiritually, the world leaves us along the side of the road to die.

Therefore, we must draw nearer to God our Father and yield ourselves to Him.

Then, when the time comes, we will be filled with God's Spirit and able to render that spiritual aid we need to provide for each other.

God's law absolutely requires that we love one another, and to love one another requires that we be humble and merciful in restoring any one of us overtaken by sin.

So, brethren, let us be truly grateful, truly grateful, for our Father's love and mercy towards us.

And let us all grow in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ, our Savior, so we will have the strength of His Holy Spirit necessary to practice mercy and to help each other stay committed and fitly joined to the body of Jesus Christ, His Church.