MERCY AND TRUTH

CONTINUITY NOTE: Sentence starts with Proverbs 3:1-2:
My son, forget not my law; but let thine heart keep my commandments:
For length of days, and long life, and peace, shall they add to thee.

(Proverbs 3:3-4) Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: (4) So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man.

“Favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man”; this sounds almost utopian. Only in the millennium will we finally find the fullness of this harmony. The apostle Paul echoes this principle in the 14th chapter of his letter to the Roman believers. In his letter, Paul points out to the Roman believers the wrongness of their judging ways towards each other. He tells them that everyone serves God with his own conscience and that we should let God do the judging. Nearing the end of his perspective thesis on following the Law of God as given through Moses he says: For he that in these things serveth Christ is acceptable to God, and approved of men. Romans 14:18.

The attitude Paul describes can only be achieved though holding on to the virtues given us in our text: mercy and truth. Mercy is great, but it should never absolve the reality and heavy price of sin. How would God be a right and just God of judgment if He closed His eyes on sin? In the same way, truth is beautiful, but it must never be used in an unmerciful manner; else it becomes a weapon that we hypocritically use against others while we hide our evil self-righteous motives behind it.

Due to our wicked sinful nature, it sounds impossible to do so; but if we wisely balance these two principles, we will be able to juggle pleasing God and man. To help him do so, this wise ‘father’ instruct his son write these principles of mercy and truth upon the tables of his heart. Five hundred years later, through the prophet Jeremiah, God described the messianic era saying, On that day, I will write my law upon their heart. This father knew and understood the concept of salvation.

Even so today, let us allow Jesus to write God’s Law in our hearts, that we may learn to temper truth with mercy; and that in our mercy, we may never obliterate the spirit of God's truth.