Dear Christian friends:

How often we pray for mercy and forgiveness! How often we do wrong and ask family and friends what we have done and show mercy to us. More than anything we pray to God for forgiveness. We want forgiveness and mercy. We ask for it. But do we give forgiveness and mercy to other people? A Christian can have a forgiving heart because God has shown mercy to him and forgiven him, and daily continues to give him mercy.

Think what we would be without the forgiveness and mercy of God. We would still be afraid of God's terrible punishment. We would know only his anger. We would have no comfort, no trust in His help. We would be like (same) a drowning person who knows he cannot save himself and that death is near. He fights and struggles (tries) to save himself, but he cannot.

But God has given us His mercy. We could not save ourselves from God's eternal punishment and death. God has saved us with His Son Jesus. Although (makes no difference) we were sinners against God, He sent His Son to pay for our sins with His death. He has called us to Him with the good news about Jesus, the message (announce) of love and forgiveness, and has made us be believe in Jesus and be saved.

Think about the many blessings we have because we are believers in Jesus. We have those blessings because God has shown mercy to us. A man who has been saved from drowning does not forget the one who saved him. The Christian cannot forget God, who has saved him from sin and eternal death. He is merciful because God has been merciful to him.

A Christian may not have much knowledge about God's Word. He may have a weak faith and get led astray often by temptation. But he can still be a believer although he has all those weaknesses. But a man who cannot forgive and show mercy shows that he does not know God's mercy for him. When a man know God's mercy and feels it in his heart, then he changes. God's mercy changed greedy, sinful Zacchaeus into the man who gave half of his things to the poor. God's mercy changed Saul, the persecutor and killer of Christians into the man Paul, the faithful servant of God and bold (brave) preacher of forgiveness through Jesus.

God's mercy has changed the Christian's heart so that he cannot be unforgiving (without forgiveness) and hard hearted to a sinner. The Christian knows his own sin and his need for God's daily forgiveness. God has changed his heart and made it soft and tender so that his heart will not let him hurt a neighbor who sins.

Sometimes the Christian may forget to show mercy, because he is still a sinner but he asks God's mercy for himself and God's help to show mercy to his neighbor.

Therefore, if we are Christians, we will obey Jesus' command to be merciful, as (same) our heavenly Father is merciful.

In our lesson, (verses 37-38), give us another reason why we should be merciful to our neighbor who does wrong: "Don't judge, and you will not get judged. And don't condemn and you will not come under judgement. Forgive, and you will receive forgiveness. Give and you will receive good measure. They will press down and shake well and will make that measure flow-over. They will give this amount to you, because the measure you give, you will receive again."

Christ Jesus speaks these words to people who, knows their worthiness (not worth) and sin, and trust in God's mercy. Jesus does not want us to believe that we earn His mercy by being merciful to our neighbor. He wants us to understand that if we show no mercy to others, after we have received mercy from Him, then we have no faith in Jesus and no forgiveness of sins. God does to us as (same) we do to our neighbor, as He says, "the measure you give, you will also receive again."

Do you want forgiveness for your sins? Then forgive the neighbor. Do you want to stand before God on Judgement Day without fear? Speak good about your neighbor and think the best about everything he says and does. Do you want to be free from God's punishment? Then do not judge and punish the neighbor. Do you want God to give you all things that are good for your body and soul? Then show mercy to your neighbor and help him in his bodily need with good advice and through giving to him from your things.

Remember God truly wants to forgive you all your sins. But if you do not show love and mercy to others, although you want God's goodness, love, and mercy for yourself, then He will take away all His blessings and His forgiveness from you, and you will become under God's judgement and punishment again.

Finally Jesus shows us that our own sins are another reason why we should show mercy to our neighbor. Those people who criticise others and find many wrongs in the lives of others often cannot see their own many sins. They see the little twig in the eyes of the neighbor, a little wrong thing in his life, but do not see the log in their own eye, the big wrong in their own life. Christians also (same) have many sins. Daily they must pray ,"Forgive our trespasses (sins) as we forgive those who trespass (sin) against us." We Christians are rightness (right perfect) before God only through faith in Jesus, not because we have no sin.

When we see sins in our neighbor, let us honestly examine our own lives. We will see many sins that we have done. That should lend us to show mercy to our neighbor.

In John 13:35 we read ,"By this all men will know that you are My disciples if you have love for one another?" Do we show the world that we are Christians by our love for one another? Pray God to change our hearts into hearts full of love and mercy for our neighbor. Let God give that and save us all through Jesus.

Amen.