Matthew 9:13 But go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy, not sacrifice.' For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners.
Jesus quotes Hosea to the Pharisees in this moment when they question his eating with sinners. God is not interested in our sacrifice for wrong doing. He is not looking for us to atone for our actions. He has already taken care of that through Jesus. I don't know that this is so hard for us to understand. The trick comes when it is in the same situation as the Pharisees were in. We need to extend the same mercy we have received from God to those around us. Often times we fall into seeing people's faults and judging them. Oh, but we do it out of our Christian concern for them, it isn't gossiping or being critical. (Yes, I wrote that sentence with sarcasm in mind.) Unfortunately we want to make people atone for their sinfulness against us. We want them to have to say they're sorry and mean it. We want them to feel how upset or hurt we are. God says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." This is our call in dealing with one another. We are to forgive before any repentance has been uttered, just as we were forgiven while we were yet sinners. This is so hard to do. I have to continually ask the Spirit to work on my heart for this one. I am very fair and I like justice. Boy, does this phrase make me pause.
Jesus quotes Hosea to the Pharisees in this moment when they question his eating with sinners. God is not interested in our sacrifice for wrong doing. He is not looking for us to atone for our actions. He has already taken care of that through Jesus. I don't know that this is so hard for us to understand. The trick comes when it is in the same situation as the Pharisees were in. We need to extend the same mercy we have received from God to those around us. Often times we fall into seeing people's faults and judging them. Oh, but we do it out of our Christian concern for them, it isn't gossiping or being critical. (Yes, I wrote that sentence with sarcasm in mind.) Unfortunately we want to make people atone for their sinfulness against us. We want them to have to say they're sorry and mean it. We want them to feel how upset or hurt we are. God says, "I desire mercy, not sacrifice." This is our call in dealing with one another. We are to forgive before any repentance has been uttered, just as we were forgiven while we were yet sinners. This is so hard to do. I have to continually ask the Spirit to work on my heart for this one. I am very fair and I like justice. Boy, does this phrase make me pause.
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