An Appointment with Christ: A Graceful Life (Luke 6:27) Part 3

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

"... But I say to you who hear: love your enemies, do good to those who hate them, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who mistreat you. To the one who strikes you on one cheek, offer the other also, and to the one who takes your cloak, do not even deny him the tunic. Give to anyone who asks you, and to the one who takes what is yours, do not ask that it be returned to you and as you want men to do with you, so do you also with them”

This verse 31 has actually been called < b>the golden rule: “...and as you want men to do with you, so do you also with them”. Actually, if we stop for a moment on that expression of the Lord, not the golden rule, we can understand what the Lord Jesus Christ is saying here, that is: who among us does not want to be treated with mercy, with generosity?

When we relate to God, we always ask God to forgive us, to have mercy with us, to be patient with us. We love it when a policeman pulls us over on the highway because we are speeding, when the policeman, rarely has he passed, says, "I'll forgive you this time, but don't do it again," and lets us go. just with a warning.

The police have used grace with us. Who does not like to be the object of grace? Who does not like to receive a good bonus at the end of the year, something that surprises you and that you did not expect? Simply because the boss felt that in his heart, grace. And what the Lord Jesus Christ tells us is: in the same way that you like to receive grace and be the object of mercy and patience from others, and forgiveness from others, in the same way that you you see yourself as a good person despite the fact that you have your defects and that from time to time you make your mistakes and your excesses, I also want you to do with others. May you give that same privilege to others. If you like to be the object of mercy and patience and that they understand you intimately and do not judge you at first sight and impulsively, and hastily, also give others the same type of benefit. Also treat others with grace, as you like them to do with you, you also treat others. If you like them to be patient with you, then be patient, be generous with others. Just as you like people to take time to get to know you, not to be hastily defined and boxed without getting to know you more intimately, likewise give people time. Before proceeding to make definitive conclusions about them, think first and give them time to see them from different angles and in different situations and then make a fair and proper conclusion.

The Lord tells you: as you want men to do with you, so do you also with them. Give them the same privilege. Use with them the same grace and the same mercy.

In Scripture there is a well-known parable that the Lord Jesus Christ relates where He speaks of two men. A man, the Bible says, had a very big debt that he owed to a king, an impossible debt to pay in reality, it was so big. Today we would say millions and millions of dollars. And the Bible says that this king called his debtor and the debtor said to him: Please have mercy on me. Be patient, don't put me in jail and give me time to pay off the debt. The parable says that the king moved with mercy, completely canceled the debt, forgave the debtor and left him free and completely exempt from his responsibility to pay him. Then, add the parable, that this man going out into the street, very happy to have been freed from this great responsibility, suddenly finds himself with a man who owed him an insignificant amount, a few dollars, and adds the parable, that the The man who had been forgiven grabbed the debtor by the throat and almost choked him saying: "Pay me what you owe me" and the debtor said "Have mercy on me", the same word he used with the king, ".. and give me time to pay you the debt”. But the parable says that this first man had no mercy on the other and simply put him in jail until he paid the debt.

Knowing this, the king called the first debtor and told him: “Fool, I forgave you an immense debt and you did not use the same mercy with the one who owed you only a minimum amount. Well, now I'm going to put you in jail”, and the parable says that this man was handed over to the executioners until he paid the last penny. What is the lesson here? The lesson is very simple. We have been recipients of mercy, of God's grace. God continually, every day, is forgiving us and tolerating us and being patient with us and waiting until we get better and lavishing on us his lessons, his teachings, his sanctifying influence to make us better. God does not treat us in the way that 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 have to do with others. If you want to be a recipient of God's mercy you have to be a mercy giver. That is the essence of the golden rule. "... as you want men to do with you, so do you also with them." If we used that rule in our daily relationships, I believe that in the world fights and violent conflicts and unpleasant discussions in the workroom would be reduced almost to nothing. Because many of the conflicts, violent encounters between men, are due to the fact that we do not use this principle. We are very willing to receive mercy from others and we demand that others treat us with patience and generosity, but unfortunately when the opportunity comes for us to extend the same to others, the same treatment, that is where we often fail. . Rather, we allow ourselves to be carried away by anger, by envy, by the desire to fool others, and then this is where the problem comes from.

That is, in a sense treating others with grace begins with looking at ourselves. Who I am? As I am? And then from there proceeding to treat others.

In fact, in other passages that we will study later, the Lord says about the famous beam and the straw, He tells us “... look first at the beam, the huge piece of wood that you have inside your eye, before looking at the insignificant straw that is in the other.” Look first at your defects, look first at how God has had mercy on you, look at how people tolerate you, look at how your wife has mercy on you and treats you well and with patience. See how your children, despite being who you are, love you. See how your friends, even though they know your shortcomings, consider you a friend and treat you well and look for you and give you preference. That's the same way you have to treat others.

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 have that same patience with others; In the house when any defect becomes evident, they are immediately there to criticize, to attack, to condemn, to judge and they are people who make life impossible for others.

At home, that kind of thing often happens. The spouse, the wife who is always criticizing, is always seeing the bad in others, without seeing that they are continually receiving grace and tolerance and forgiveness from others. Why not do with others as we want them to do with us.

That is Christ's call on your life this morning. Just as you have been blessed with moments of mercy and grace in others, why don't you also bless the world, why don't you adopt this ethic of grace in your own life. May the Lord help us 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 those sublime commandments. You just can't ever do it. Only through the presence of Jesus in your life and surrendering your life to Christ and asking him to dwell within you through his Holy Spirit. God bless you and we'll talk next time.