But if you had known what this means, ‘I desire compassion, and not a sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent.

                                                                                                                   Matthew 12:7

Today: Read Matthew 12

When Jesus walked the earth, there seemed to be two consistently different reactions toward Him. For those who were living in sin, oppressed, suffering, in anguish, and in the grip of the enemy, to see Jesus was a reason to celebrate and rejoice. Jesus brought with Him real hope of victory, healing, and spiritual freedom. Jesus came to save, redeem, and restore lives. Contrast that to the legalistic, rule-obsessed, Pharisees. They were “representatives” of God, yet didn’t even recognize Him or His glory, even when displayed right in front of them. Today’s passage is a good primer on what God desires in the life of every born again believer in Jesus Christ and it’s foundation is in Jesus’ words, “I desire compassion, and not sacrifice.” Everything that we claim to believe and profess should move from mere knowledge to a demonstration of who God is by pouring these five characteristics into the lives of others.

Be Loving

Love is the first descriptor used in defining the fruit of God’s Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). I don’t believe this is a coincidence. Arguably, all of the other traits of the Christian life are dependent on how loving we are. All that God has done for us stems from His love. Therefore, our treatment and handling of others can be assessed by how much we love them. Love demonstrates that we know God (1 John 4:7-8). Our words, beliefs, and sacrificial actions, void of love, become useless and unprofitable (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Love is the fulfillment of the Law of God (Romans 13:10). Jesus is the embodiment of the love of God but the Pharisees were more concerned about the statute regarding the Sabbath than they were of Jesus and the disciples. They completely missed the glory of God.

Be Forgiving

It seems that everyone wants to be forgiven, but not everyone is willing to forgive. When it comes to our sin and failure, we want God “to cast it as far as the east is from the west,” (Psalm 103:12) while retaining the bitterness and anger associated with being wronged by others. In the Lord’s Prayer, we find a phrase that goes like this, “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Have you ever prayed that before? When we pray that to God, we are asking Him to forgive us in direct proportion to our releasing others from their debts against us. Jesus elaborates on this truth by instructing us that if we forgive others, God will forgive us. However, if we are unwilling to forgive, then God will not forgive our sins (Matthew 6:14-15). We should be a gracious people, ready to forgive as many times as is necessary (Matthew 18:21-22).

Be Merciful

The issue of forgiveness is not the only place in scripture where we find this idea of proportional response from God. Consider the following:

“Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful. Do not judge, and you will not be judged; and do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; pardon, and you will be pardoned. Give, and it will be given to you…For by your standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

                                                                                                                   Luke 6:36-38

We are to display mercy in the lives of others. This means that we withhold any penalty that we feel is due another for an offense against us. Jesus tells us that we are not judged when we do not judge others. We will not be condemned when we refuse to condemn. We will be pardoned for our offenses as we pardon others as well. “Give to others and it will be given to you as well.” Do you see the reciprocal pattern in this passage? “By the same standard of measure it will be measured to you in return.”

Be Humble

Christians should be in state of constant thankfulness for the salvation, grace, and mercy of God in their own lives. We have all sinned and fallen short of God’s glory (Romans 3:23) and when we break even one of God’s laws, we become guilty of the whole thing (James 2:10). Remembering these truths should keep us not only in a state of thankfulness, but humility as well. Jesus humbled Himself to become the propitiation for the sins of the world (Philippians 2:6-7) therefore we are to have this same humility in ourselves. This means that your life is not just about you and what you want and desire. Believer’s lives should be marked with a characteristic of regarding others as more important than themselves as well as looking out for the interests of others (Philippians 2:3-4).

Be Compassionate

Compassion is characterized by mercy, kindness, and goodwill. It is the ability to sympathize with the plight of another human being. This kind of compassion is accompanied by a desire to help them. Lacking compassion, the Pharisees “condemned the innocent” by focusing on the law rather than on their fellow man. Christians should share in displaying the same kind of compassion that Jesus demonstrated throughout His earthly ministry.

I believe the key to understanding these truths is found in the verse preceding our passage, “But I say to you that something greater than the temple is here” (v 6). Jesus is greater indeed. The Pharisees lacked compassion, in part, because they believed that the letter of the law was the process by which God would bless mankind. They failed to see that someone greater had come on the scene, thus they missed the very God that they believed they were serving. Only when we exhibit these characteristics in abundance can we really make claim to be living “godly” lives and being “Christ-like.” Keeping these things in mind will also assist in guarding the church against becoming merely people who “know a lot but don’t show a lot.”