Love Begats Mercy

Echoes of Truth

February 27th

Theme:Love Begats Mercy

God is love; and every mercy we receive flows from that fountain. – Charles Spurgeon

It will be so difficult to explain mercy without love and to describe love without mercy. The first expression of God’s love to us is the free and bountiful measure of mercy extended to us. When we think of mercy in broad terms, forgiveness should quickly ring in our minds. 

Mercy is not earned. Mercy is not deserved. Mercy is not bought. Mercy is not sold. Mercy is willingly given to the underserved who cannot earn it by any means nor can it be bought at any price. Mercy is what has prevented us from being consumed by God’s wrath and holy judgement (Lamentations 3:22).

Also Read

Borrow More Vessels for the Overflow

Wholehearted: The Kind of Heart God Cannot Ignore

This parable of Jesus tells us what mercy is. In Luke 7:40-42, it is the cancellation of debt owed; No matter how little or great, it must be paid but the debtors are incapacitated to pay it. This said, every wrong word, thought, action, attitude, motive that certainly should have earned punishment and we got mercy for it at the point of asking forgiveness and repentance. Why?

A few verses later in the same parable, verse 47 precisely, turns the attention to love. The debtors are expected to respond to the forgiveness of their debts with love. Depending on the magnitude of their debt, it will commemorate the size of their love. This is because the extension of forgiveness to them is seen as the revelation of love. The one who is forgiven much will love much. 

In other words, God’s mercy extended to a debtor of the law, deserving of punishment, is an act that proves His love. And the natural response from the one whose debts are erased should be love. This makes it important for the debtor to weigh the magnitude of the debt she’s owed. That is the same measure of love she has.

We can not have love that outweighs the measure of mercy we have received. Mercy is extended by God from the place of love. The right response to receiving His mercy is to love Him by how much we have come to perceive the weight of our sins. 

Unless we see our sins as so great a deal and the mercy we have received as without measure, responding to God’s love with a deep sense of our own love for Him will never scratch beyond the surface. 

Spend some time with this short sermon by Zac Poonen:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pgaHC0diGU

Let Us Pray:

Abba Father, I thank You for Your mercy and love even in my unfaithfulness. I owed a debt I could not pay and You sent Your son to pay it on my behalf, thank You for demonstrating Your mercy and love towars me even before I realised it. May I never get used to Your love and take it for granted Lord. Help me to always be in awe of Your mercy and never trivialise it. I ask Lord that You also use me to show Your love and mercy to the people around me, thank You Jesus for You will do this and more in my life, in Jesus name. Amen.