“Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.” - Proverbs 3:3
This is my third attempt at writing this week's message. I wrote an entire message that I have discarded. A second message simply wasn't coming together like it should.
As I write this, I am reading through the book of Proverbs again. Every January I read the book of Proverbs. Proverbs has 31 chapters and January has 31 days, so I read one chapter per day. The book of Proverbs is a source of great, practical information. Proverbs is the wisdom book of the Bible. We need wisdom today!
In Proverbs 3:3, the Bible says, “Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart.” Solomon wisely instructs us to embrace both mercy and truth. As I mentioned, I wrote an entire message for this week that I have since pushed aside. The reason I trashed the message is simple. While it had truth, it didn't have much mercy or grace in it.
It is easy to speak truth to others but seek mercy for yourself. For instance, if you encounter an aggressive driver on the highway, you may be prone to smile when you see him pulled over later by a policeman. However, if you are the one who gets pulled over for speeding, you pray that the officer shows mercy and lets you off with just a warning.
In life, we should embrace both mercy and truth. I follow many on Twitter and Facebook. I've listened to many songs and sermons. I've talked with several people. This is what I've learned from it all. Some practice mercy without truth. Others preach truth without showing mercy. Both extremes are harmful.
Many are guilty of showing mercy without truth. While they may have good intensions, they overlook, tolerate or excuse sin in the lives of others. Hoping to avoid confrontation, separation or isolation, they want to only want to emphasize areas of agreement while deliberately avoiding vital issues. Remaining silent over sin may preserve a friendship, but it endangers the friend you claim to care about, while destroying your own credibility.
While many church members pursue mercy at the expense of truth, there are others who proclaim truth while mercy is totally absent from their message. Like many, I believe that the preaching of the law brings about awareness of sin. This is important. But we must also understand that mercy also must be proclaimed. Furthermore, our words and actions need to be patterned by truth, but seasoned with mercy. It is wrong to preach about hell without a broken heart. It is wrong to get on social media and condemn people carelessly. Jerry Vines once said that a Christian does not have the luxury of being unkind. Christians need to live the truth while exhibiting grace. Far too many Christians are quick to condemn, but they show little grace. Both mercy and grace needs to be demonstrated by our lives and declared from our lips.
I am glad that the Lord reached me with the truth and saved me by His mercy and grace. Mercy and truth changed my life. While living and proclaiming the truth, we should do so with hearts of mercy. As recipients of grace, shouldn't we demonstrate grace?
We should never sacrifice truth on the altar of friendship, neither should we have cold, calloused hearts as we stand for truth.
Let's be people of mercy AND truth!
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