An Appointment with Christ: a Life of Grace (Luke 6:27), Part 3

My brothers and friends, may the Lord bless you. Welcome to your program “An Appointment with Christ,” and on this occasion we want to spend a few minutes with you as we continue our study about grace and how we are supposed to exemplify and express that grace of God to others. As our starting point these days, we are using the passage found in the Gospel according to Saint Luke, chapter 6, beginning with verse 27, where the Lord says:

“...but to you who hear I say: love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who slander you. To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also; and from the one who takes away your cloak, do not withhold even your tunic. Give to everyone who asks you, and from the one who takes what is yours, do not ask for it back. And as you want people to do to you, do likewise to them.”

In fact, this verse 31 has been called the Golden Rule: “...and as you want people to do to you, do likewise to them.” Actually, if we pause for just a moment over that statement by the Lord—the Golden Rule—we can understand what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here; that is, which of us does not want to be treated with mercy and generosity?

When we relate to God, we always ask God to forgive us, to have mercy on us, to be patient with us. We love it when a police officer stops us on the highway because we are speeding and the officer—this has rarely happened—says to us: “I’m going to let you off this time, but don’t do it again,” and lets us go with just a warning.

The police officer has shown us grace. Who does not like to be the recipient of grace? Who does not like receiving a nice bonus at the end of the year, something surprising and unexpected? Simply because the boss felt it in his heart—grace. And what the Lord Jesus Christ tells us is this: just as you like to receive grace and be the recipient of other people’s mercy, patience, and forgiveness; just as you see yourself as a good person despite having your faults and occasionally making mistakes and going too far, in the same way I want you to treat others. Give others that same privilege. If you like to be the recipient of mercy and patience, to be understood deep down, and not to be judged at first sight, impulsively and hastily, then give others that same kind of benefit. Treat others with grace as well; as you like others to do to you, do likewise to them. If you like people to be patient with you, then be patient and generous with others. Just as you like people to take the time to get to know you and not hastily define you and put you in a box without knowing you more intimately, likewise give people time. Before reaching definitive conclusions about them, think first and give yourself time to see them from different angles and in different situations, and then reach a fair and proper conclusion.

The Lord tells you: as you want people to do to you, do likewise to them. Give them the same privilege. Show them the same grace and the same mercy.

In Scripture there is a fairly well-known parable told by the Lord Jesus Christ in which He speaks of two men. One man, the Bible says, owed a very large debt to a king, a debt so great that it was actually impossible to repay. Today we would say millions and millions of dollars. And the Bible says that this king summoned his debtor, and the debtor said to him: “Please have mercy on me. Be patient; do not throw me into prison, and give me time to repay the debt.” The parable says that the king, moved with mercy, completely canceled the debt, forgave the debtor, and set him free, entirely released from his responsibility to repay him. Then, the parable adds, this man went out into the street, very happy to have been freed from this great responsibility, and suddenly encountered a man who owed him an insignificant amount, a few dollars. And the parable adds that the man who had been forgiven grabbed the debtor by the throat and, nearly choking him, said: “Pay me what you owe me.” And the debtor said to him, “Have mercy on me”—the same words he had used with the king—“...and give me time to repay the debt.” But the parable says that this first man had no mercy on the other and simply threw him into prison until he paid the debt.

When the king learned of this, he summoned the first debtor and said to him: “Fool, I forgave you an immense debt, and you did not show the same mercy to the one who owed you only a minimal amount. So now I am going to throw you into prison.” And the parable says that this man was handed over to the torturers until he paid the last penny. What is the lesson here? The lesson is very simple. We have been recipients of God’s mercy and grace. Continually, every day, God is forgiving us, putting up with us, being patient with us, waiting until we improve, and lavishing upon us His lessons, His teachings, and His sanctifying influence so that we may become better. God does not treat us as we deserve, as we have already said, and God expects—God demands—that we do the same. As God has done with us, we are supposed to do with others.

And as we want God to do with us, we must do with others. If you want to be a recipient of God’s mercy, you must be a giver of mercy. That is the essence of the Golden Rule. “...as you want people to do to you, do likewise to them.” If we used that standard in our daily relationships, I believe that fights, violent conflicts, and unpleasant arguments in workplaces around the world would be reduced to almost nothing. For many of people’s conflicts and violent encounters occur because we do not follow this principle. We are very willing to receive mercy from others, and we demand that others treat us with patience and generosity. Unfortunately, however, when the opportunity comes for us to extend the same thing—the same treatment—to others, that is where we often fail. Instead, we allow ourselves to be carried away by anger, envy, and the desire to mock others, and that is when the problem begins.

That is to say, in one sense, treating others with grace begins with looking at ourselves. Who am I? What am I like? And then, proceeding from there, we treat others.

In fact, in other passages that we will study later, the Lord speaks about the famous beam and the speck. He tells us, “...look first at the beam, the immense piece of wood that is in your eye, before looking at the insignificant little speck that is in the other person’s eye.” Look first at your faults; look first at how God has had mercy on you; look at how people put up with you; look at how your wife has mercy on you and treats you well and patiently. Look at how your children love you despite the way you are. Look at how your friends, even though they know your faults, consider you a friend, treat you well, seek you out, and show you preference. You must treat others in that same way.

There are many people in the world, my brothers, who are very quick to forgive themselves and expect others to forgive them. But how difficult it is for them to show that same patience toward others. At home, whenever any fault becomes apparent, they are immediately there to criticize, attack, condemn, and judge; they are people who make life impossible for others.

That kind of thing often happens in the home. The spouse—the wife who is always criticizing, always seeing what is wrong in others—fails to see that they are continually recipients of the grace, tolerance, and forgiveness of others. Why not do to others as we want them to do to us?

That is Christ’s call upon your life this morning. Just as you have been blessed by moments of mercy and grace in others, why do you not also bless the world? Why do you not adopt this ethic of grace in your own life? May the Lord help us to live up to His sublime teachings. God bless you, and always remember: Christ in you is the source of that ability to live up to such sublime commandments. You will never be able to do it on your own. You can do it only through the presence of Jesus in your life, by surrendering your life to Christ and asking Him to dwell within you through His Holy Spirit. May God bless you, and we will speak again on another occasion.