Loving Mercy

Do you love mercy? In the Scriptures, the word sometimes translated "mercy" can also be rendered "steadfast love." So when I ask, "Do you love mercy?", I really ask, "Do you love love?" Specifically, the love that God offers.

Before you answer too quickly, think about it. Jesus ate with sinners, and it hacked off the religious leaders of His day to no end. These were the guys who should've known better. They should have recognized Him. Some did, but most just couldn't get their arms around Jesus as Messiah.

He touched the untouchable, accepted lavish worship from the sexually immoral, and dared to reckon the Samaritans (at best, considered heretics by religious Jews) among God's beloved. All of that lavish love earned Him derision and eventually death. Some would argue His death came as a political necessity. Sure, He was a radical, but not as a political reformer, as some hold. He simply loved radically. And He was hated for that by the "church" of His day.

Do we still hate Him for that? We, the church? Are we like the Ephesians mentioned in John's Revelation? Long on righteousness, only to be found wanting in our love for Him?

I can't speak for everyone, but I know that sometimes I am guilty of just such a charge.

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