The Friday after the Fourth Sunday after Trinity Sunday
Posted on July 3, 2026 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
Today’s text is the same as the Gospel reading for this past Sunday. Since this text is constantly misused by the world, it is necessary to make a few clarifications about what Jesus is and is not teaching.
First, Jesus does not teach that we earn forgiveness for ourselves by forgiving others. He simply shows the similarity between the two, as He also does in the Lord’s Prayer, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us.” The cause and effect is actually the other way around. We are able to forgive others because God first forgave us. We are merciful to others because God is merciful toward us. “We love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19).
Second, Jesus does not teach that we should never point out our neighbor’s sin. St. Paul writes, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them” (Eph. 5:11). What Jesus is really teaching is that we should not forget God’s mercy toward us and imagine that we are somehow superior to others. When it is necessary to point out someone else’s sin, our goal should not be to bring judgment upon them or to exalt ourselves, but rather to rescue them and urge them to join us at the mercy seat of God.
Collect: 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.
