Friday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 7, 2023 by under
Scripture: St. Luke 6:36-42 (NKJV)
6:36 “Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.
37 “Judge not, and you shall not be judged. Condemn not, and you shall not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. 38 Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over will be put into your bosom. For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured back to you.”
39 And He spoke a parable to them: “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into the ditch? 40 A disciple is not above his teacher, but everyone who is perfectly trained will be like his teacher. 41 And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not perceive the plank in your own eye? 42 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck that is in your eye,’ when you yourself do not see the plank that is in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck that is in your brother’s eye.”
Devotion
Just as we heard Sunday, our Lord Jesus commands us to be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful. What then does our Father’s mercy look like? The practice of mercy embraces two parts. First, we do not seek vengeance against those who have wronged us. Instead, we show compassion to them. This is what the mercy of the heavenly Father is like. For He does not treat us the way we deserve to be treated. How do we deserve to be treated? We are deserving of His eternal wrath and displeasure. We deserve to be judged guilty of the sins and iniquities that we commit. We are deserving of death.
Our heavenly Father instead shows us compassion. Instead of condemning this sinful world, He sent His Only-begotten Son, our Lord Jesus, in mankind’s flesh to fulfill the Law and pay the penalty of our sins. He meted out His eternal wrath and displeasure upon the only One who was not deserving of it. Now all those who cling in faith to this beloved Son of the heavenly Father are adopted to be sons of the heavenly Father. Sons, justified by faith, obey their Father’s will. He desires for us to show the same mercy toward those who sin against us as He has shown us. Through this act of mercy men are drawn to faith in the Lord God.
Prayer: Grant, O Lord, we beseech Thee, that the course of this world may be so peaceably ordered by Thy governance, that Thy Church may joyfully serve Thee in all godly quietness; through Jesus Christ, Thy Son, our Lord, Who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, ever One God, world without end. Amen.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
