Matthew 18:28-31 The Abuses of Mercy and Grace
The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips and walk out the door and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable.
—?Brennan Manning
This is an awesome quote and statement by a man who was born and raised in New York, during the Depression-Era New York. He joined the US Marine Corp and fought in the Korean War. When His service was over, he went to seminary and eventually became an ordained priest. In 1960 Little Brothers of Jesus of Charles de Foucauld, was an organization to help transport water by donkey to the poor. By choice he was imprisoned and spent time in a desert cave. When he returned to the USA in the 1970’s, Brennan began writing to fight his addiction to alcoholism. One of Manning’s books is called The Ragamuffin Gospel , his writings was that people can abuse the idea of God’s grace. If a person tries to behave a certain way, trying to earn points to the Lord’s favor, that whole person’s heart will slip up and behave the way he or she always has. If a true follower of the Lord wants to transform, they must allow the surrender to God’s grace and allow His grace to change your heart. The grace the merciful king showed to his servant in Matthew 18:23-27, is not what the servant deserved. The servant made 10,000 talent debt all by himself and it would take up to 200,000 years of labor! It is 60,000,000 working days. In modern money, it is $3.48 billion, it would take several lifetime for this servant to pay off his debt. No wonder the king said it was better to sell him and his family away and maybe get some of his money back. But when the servant fell face first on the floor at the king’s feet and begged for mercy, the king full of compassion, said you are forgiven and told his accountant to delete this servant’s total debt he owned. Now when this servant was walking home, he probably felt lighter so full of the grace he just received. When he saw a fellow servant who owed him only 100 denarii, he immediately put his hands around his throat and choked his neck demanding his money or his kill the man. The man stated he had no money to pay back his debt, so the recently forgiven servant locked his follower, until he got what was owed to him. This is abused grace, if you can’t show the love and mercy the Lord has given to you as you call yourself a Christian, you are taking God’s name in vain. Right when two servants witness this action going on, and they know the whole story of the before and after, they report his grateful self. It is Christian like the unmerciful servant that says we are hypocrites and that they are bad people sitting in the pews of the church. Please, please my brothers and sister, show the grace the Lord has given you and show it to all God’s children. God bless you all, the merciful Jesus loves you and so do I. Samuel H.
