|
|
|
|
Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection ix
The Role of Mercy ...
Thursday, May 18, 2017. We have been looking into the letter of James in the New Testament. It is usually considered as one of the earliest New Testament letters - written only one or two decades after the death of Jesus. James is talking about the role of God's justice, about our own behaviour when we live in faith - and about the role of mercy!
Judgement and Mercy …
In James 2 the topic is our relationship towards rich and poor people. James points out that God loves the poor with special passion. Read the whole chapter … which includes the following lines:
8 If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well. 9 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. (from James 2)
The law of liberty …
Mercy triumphs over judgement. James talks about the mercy which God shows in Jesus. We are forgiven by his mercy. In this mercy we are asked to live - and of course this includes that we try to follow God's justice. Jesus himself talks about this mercy in the parable about the unforgiving servant (Matthew 18).
Humans fail strongly when it comes to the love we are to live towards our friends and our enemies as well. But the community of Christ in father, son and holy spirit lives this love - and we are invited and even demanded to search it and to live in it.
The law of Christ is the law of liberty. But it is a liberty which includes mercy, it is not a liberty which would allow you to intentionally go against justice and mercy. It is a law of liberty which wants to free you, not to bound you again. This freedom comes from community with him through the holy spirit, by searching him and his advice day by day, in all what you do! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts