Generally speaking, no one wants to be evangelized. To be told that your belief system is flat out wrong is – in a word – demeaning. To be told that a stranger at your door has a better belief system is offensive. There are always some, but very few actively want to be told how to know God.
But everyone wants the Kingdom of God. Everyone wants what the Christ-follower already has. For world over, everyone wants peace. Civic peace in their neighborhoods, relational peace in their homes, peace of mind in their hearts. Everyone wants peace! Likewise abundance. Who will say “No” to rain in season, and sunshine in season and a great harvest? Who will turn from abundance? Who does not want all they need and then some? Everyone wants blessing! Everyone wants peace.
And everyone wants justice. That they get what is rightfully theirs, and that others do not abuse them or their loved ones. This is a fundamental human desire – it goes to the core of our being. Everyone wants justice, and everyone wants blessing, and everyone wants peace. Everyone wants health and joy and the sweet sense of having done rightly (righteousness). Everyone wants what the Kingdom of God is.
The problem is that we are all sinners, and every one of us is a wrongdoer. We do not deserve the Kingdom of God. Wrongdoing mandates justice, and that justice will be to our own great hurt. We may want justice for others, but we are in much need of mercy for ourselves!
Now, mercy is not mercy if it is an obligation. Mercy is mercy when it is unwarranted. Everyone wants compassion, grace and love when they’ve been wronged and when they’ve wronged another. Everyone wants mercy for themselves, just as much as they want peace, blessing and justice for themselves!
Fortunately, we can trust God to be merciful because God is full of mercy by character. Deuteronomy 4:31 says, “For the Lord your God is a merciful God.” Our cry for mercy is not unheard. God – in His mercy – acts, forgiving and restoring even though we do not deserve forgiveness, nor restoration, nor blessing nor peace, nor any other good and perfect gift. The Scriptures reveal this: God is merciful, and he hears our cries for mercy.
But if He acts that way, we who are made in His image ought to act that way too! The Kingdom of God is not a place where one receives and receives and receives, without reciprocation. The Kingdom of God is a place where God’s people act as God acts. If God is merciful – and He is – we His people must be merciful too. If God gives peace – and He does – we His people should seek to do likewise. If God is just – and He is – we His people should be just also. If God blesses – and He does – we His people should bless also.
Our actions toward others both demonstrate the level of our understanding of His work toward us, and unlock greater capacity to receive from Him what we have given to others. In fact, it may even be said that without showing at least mercy to others, we cannot expect to receive mercy from Him Perhaps it is with this in mind that Jesus gives us the fifth beatitude; “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Amen.
God is good, immutably good. He desires not the death of the sinner, but the death of sin.
Leighton Pullan
APPLICATION: Intentionality
Who have you shown undeserved kindness to most recently?