Mercy is the Beginning

James 2:12 Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, 13 because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

Mer·cy: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.

Here’s my checklist from James so far: √ endurance and √ need.  Next on the list is √ mercy.  We learn what it means to endure when we become completely aware of our need for Jesus to work out within us what God has promised.  Even before we “came to our senses” and spoke our own commitment to be a follower of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit was at work revealing our need to do just that.  Walking into the arms of Jesus wasn’t an act of our own making.  Those words we spoke were the result of God’s mercy seeping into the cracks of a stony heart and triumphing over judgment, his and ours.  

Mercy is the beginning of  our own baptism into the Kingdom of God.   Shared mercy has other benefits that are just as real.   “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,  and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Love, Jesus