Friday, September 8, 2017

Showing mercy, except...

James 2:8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors. 10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it. 11 For he who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.” If you do not commit adultery but do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged under the law of liberty. 13 For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.
We all have them: people who we really cannot deal with.  I have seen some very godly men and women who treat almost everyone with much grace and love, demonstrating Christ-likeness, forgiveness, and compassion, yet, when they come to someone who has committed a certain sin in the past, or who still demonstrates one area in which sanctification seems to be slow - they struggle showing mercy, and even come up with thought-out justifications as to why it does not apply in said circumstance.  To us all, James would say: verse 13 - don't just skip over or rush through verse 13 to get to the better known verses that follow.  Mercy - we need more of it.  

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