Reciprocating the Mercy of God

UV 4192/10000 Reciprocating the Forgiveness and Mercy of God Should you not have mercy on your fellow slave ( who owed you little by comparison), as I had mercy on you? Matthew 18 v 33 We are slaves of sin and owe a debt to Jesus for setting us free from sin and its consequences. He in His great mercy has forgiven our total debt. Hence, it is expected that we who have received such great mercy, behave mercifully and graciously with those who owe us much less. Some might be ungrateful to us for an act we did to help them. Some might be vicious and attack or harm us without any reason. Some might have betrayed or slighted us. Some might have caused grievous harm to our reputation or career by their slander. But whatever be their actions that hurt us the total weight of it is much less than the unconditional mercy the Lord has shown us in Christ. Hence, Jesus included mercy as one of the beautiful and blessed attitudes of children of God, “Blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy.” Jesus is our ultimate benchmark for forgiveness for He forgave Judas for betrayal, He forgave Peter for denial, He forgave the Jews who got Him cruelly crucified, He forgave the Roman soldiers who crucified Him, He forgave the prostitute who fell at His feet, He forgave tax collectors for extortion. On the cross, in His dying moments, He cried out, “Father, forgive them for they know not what they do.” Others owe us much less by comparison to what we owe the Lord- this is the one reason we are exhorted to be merciful to others, overlooking their faults, errors, willful acts against us. The Lord promises that though He is ever merciful, He would use the same yardstick or measure to forgive or deal with us that we use in our dealings with others. Just as the Lord is patient with us, we need to show the same patience to others. We need to forgive the acts of omission or commission of others that has hurt us. It is not, therefore, becoming of the children of God, the believers of Christ to nurse a grudge, to harbour resentment or to seek to wreak vengeance. It is the prerogative of the Creator to judge people and we should avoid passing severe or uncharitable judgements of those we relate to. We are accountable for everything we think, speak and do and being aware of this, avoid being harsh or cruel or unkind to others. We, humans, have a natural tendency to pay back others in the same coin and often with added interest but the Lord asks us to examine our own lives, our own debt to others. If we always have the consciousness that we are forgiven sinners, we will tend to be more compassionate like Christ who is sinless and has a right to judge, condemn, punish others but chose to forgive freely at great cost and suffering to His own Person.