By Wyatt Graham
I know of no other passage in Scripture that has changed me more than James 2:13, which says, “Mercy triumphs over judgment.” I am not naturally a merciful person, and I often fail to live up to these words. Yet James argued we must become merciful, and that this mercy triumphs over judgmentalism.
Why?
Because mercy stands at the centre of what it means to be a Christian. So whether in the family, the church, or at work, we must remember that mercy triumphs over judgment, if we are to attain the high calling we have in Christ Jesus and avoid bitter fights with one another.
Mercy moves us to treat people as worthy of honour, kindness, and love. Love is the steady desire to will someone’s good, and mercy treats someone charitably even if they deserve judgment. Mercy is love applied. So when Jesus says that the Law hangs upon two things—love of God and neighbour—he includes acts of mercy (Matt 22:37–40). Or as he says elsewhere, “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36).
If mercy is one application of love, what are other applications of it? Consider what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 13:4–7:
“Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.”
What an amazing set of virtues that flow from love. Small wonder, then, that God is Love itself (1 John 4:8, 16). And so we imitate God as we love others. Jesus did say after all: “just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” (John 13:34).
Notice that love bears all things and believes all things. In 1 Corinthians 13, we find Paul challenging us where it hurts. We are naturally suspicious of one another. We love to pigeonhole others into camps and think poorly of them. But we must believe the best of one another. Only then can we make headway into that unity of the Spirit to which God calls us (Eph 4:3).
Love leads us to the unity of the Spirit that Jesus prays for in John 17. Paul illustrates this well in Romans 14–15. In this passage, Christians disagree with each other over what foods one may or may not eat and what days they may celebrate. You can imagine the setting. Sadly, Christians at times bite and devour each other over secondary issues.
But Paul says the most amazing thing in Romans 14:17. As a way to overcome this division, he says, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.” In Greek, the phrase “a matter of” does not exist. So it might be rendered more literally: “For the kingdom of God is not eating and drinking, but is righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”
In other words, Paul urges the Romans to overcome their disagreements on secondary matters by remembering that God’s kingdom is righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. It is righteousness because God justifies us by faith; it is peace since we have peace with God and each other; and it is joy because we cannot help but feel grateful for what God has done for us in Christ Jesus.
And Jesus matters. Paul advances his argument for unity in the Spirit by saying: “welcome one another as Christ has welcomed you, for the glory of God” (Rom 15:7). We must welcome each other as Christ welcomed us despite our differences.
And we may well have to live with differences over food and drink (Rom 14:13–16). Some of us may value certain holidays while others do not (Rom 14:5). And some of these beliefs may even proceed from faith (Rom 14:23). Even so, Paul tells us to accept one another as Christ accepted us across these differences.
We need not give up our secondary opinions; we may even try to persuade each other still! But we must remember that we are called to live in the Spirit because Christ has welcomed us.
And how did Christ welcome us? Consider Romans 5:10: “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life.” God welcomes us in Christ even when we were enemies. Or read Romans 5:8: “God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” He welcomes us as sinners!
In other words, God’s love for us in Christ meant that Jesus died for us out of love. He gave up his life even when we were sinners, enemies. That is the kind of welcome Jesus gives us into his kingdom. And there is no greater love than this, that one may lay down his life for another (John 15:13).
And Christ summons us to take up our cross, die to self, and pour out our love in mercy, so that we might attain the unity of the Spirit.
These marching orders are not optional. On the night he was betrayed, Jesus prayed for our unity: “Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one” (John 17:11). And Paul urges us to “with all humility and gentleness, with patience, [bear] with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Eph 4:2–3).
I pray that we might all attain to that unity, so that we might walk in a manner worthy of our calling (Eph 4:1). The pathway is right before us: mercy triumphs over judgment. Love believes the best of each other. It welcomes each other as Christ welcomed us, despite real and lasting differences.
Because in the end, the kingdom of God is not about secondary differences but about righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
And here, we get to the heart of theological education. We must love the Lord our God with our minds, and we must have our hearts right before God. When Jesus says that the Law hangs on two things—love of God and neighbour as ourselves—this duplex love gives us marching orders at Carey.
And my hope for Carey is that we might exhibit this love, so that we will read Scripture as Jesus does. How can we know God, who is Love (1 John 4:8, 16), if we ourselves do not love? As John tells us, “love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God” (1 John 4:7).
The alternative is unthinkable. Love must guide us, for God is Love. Nothing else can do it.
