Showing Mercy
James 2:13 Yes, you must show mercy to others. If you do not show mercy, then God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the one who shows mercy can stand without fear before the Judge.
There are some intensely uncomfortable things in the Bible… truly. Passages that we’d rather skim over and ignore. Verses that offend our own personal theologies, if you will. Today, we’re going to look at one of those.
Let me begin by saying that I believe a person can only be saved through God’s grace, by faith in Jesus, who died to pay for our sins and rose again to give us the free gift of eternal life.
But I don’t subscribe to the once-saved, always-saved philosophy – not because I have my own pet theology around this, but because a plain reading of the Bible simply doesn’t give me that luxury. Here’s that verse I mentioned earlier:
James 2:13 Yes, you must show mercy to others. If you do not show mercy, then God will not show mercy to you when he judges you. But the one who shows mercy can stand without fear before the Judge.
In understanding the Word of God, a plain reading of the text is inevitably the best reading. And a plain reading of this particular verse tells us that we can believe in Jesus, but if we don’t show mercy toward others, then on that day of judgement, neither will He show mercy toward us. Actually, Jesus told a whole parable about this very thing. He begins with the words “The Kingdom of Heaven is like this …” and ends with the unmerciful servant being imprisoned and tortured until he could repay his impossibly unrepayable debt to the king. So let’s be crystal clear about this. Showing mercy is not an optional extra. A lack of mercy toward others on our part will result in a lack of mercy by God toward us.
That’s His Word. Fresh … for you … today.
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