James 5:11We count those blessed who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and have seen the outcome of the Lord’s dealings, that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful.
I was, perhaps, not a great cop. Years ago I worked for a couple of police agencies, mostly as a patrolman. With a few exceptions, someone really had to completely disregard the traffic laws to induce me to pull them over. Even if I did pull someone over, unless the infraction was really egregious, I was always looking for reasons not to write a ticket. It wasn’t a laziness thing — I just know how easy it is to accidentally get sideways with the traffic laws, and how grateful I’ve been when a police officer chose not to write me a ticket.
I was reminded of this when I was reading James 5:11. James says that the Lord is full of compassion and is merciful. If you were to look at the Greek, you would see that the word for “compassion” is intensified; it might be better translated as “super-compassionate” or “uber-compassionate.” And merciful. He is looking for ways to give us mercy. In fact, Paul, in 2 Corinthians, calls God the “Father of mercies and God of all comfort.” God (the Father), like his Son, begets mercy, and is looking for opportunities to lavish those mercies on us. And when God looks for something, He always finds it!
Which is where the nepotism comes in. God has given himself an easy out: “I will be merciful on this person, simply because he or she is my son or daughter.” Earthly nepotism is usually (rightly) viewed as undesirable, even unjust. But heavenly, Godly nepotism is entirely righteous, and our only hope, the basis for our salvation. Without it, God does not have a reason to bestow His mercies on us — we certainly can’t offer any reason or merit on our own. So God has, according to his own good will and love for us, provided a reason for Him to be gracious and merciful to us: he has made us His children, and then uses that as the basis for his mercy. It is never “I will have mercy because he read his Bible this morning,” or “I will have mercy because she went to church last Sunday,” or “I will have mercy because he tries to be a good person.” It is always “I will have mercy because this person is my child.”
By the way, the basis for God’s mercy is similar to the basis for my reluctance to write tickets: he knows just how easy it us for us to fall prey to sin. Hebrews 2:18 tells us the “He [Jesus] Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, [and therefore] He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.” Jesus knows what it is to be tempted by sin, although He Himself never sinned. In fact — and this will blow your mind — he knows temptation to sin far, far more intimately than you and I will ever know it. And although He never sinned, such knowledge gives Him uber-compassion on us, leading to his boundless mercy.
All because we are His children.
