The Jesus Way: Receive His Mercy and Learn to Show It
Look closely at the Savior who has shown you mercy. Learn his teaching, resist retaliation, and let grateful obedience shape your next response.
#339 — The Jesus Way
Sep 9, 2024
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Look at Jesus before choosing your response
We can tell ourselves to be kinder and more forgiving, then lose that resolve at the next harsh word. We need something stronger than an inspiring mood to sustain a costly response. Christian conduct needs a deeper foundation than the desire to feel like a good person.
Phil Wickham's song The Jesus Way prompted this subject. Its title turns our attention toward the Lord whose life and teaching show us what following him means. The important sequence is to see His goodness, recognize the mercy we've received, learn what He commands, and then practice it toward others. We aren't inventing a generous personality and attaching Christ's name to it. We're learning to follow the Lord who first came to save us.
See how he faced wrongdoing
In 1 Peter 2:21–24, Jesus suffers without sinning or answering insults with insults. He entrusts himself to the One who judges justly. His suffering was also unique: He bore our sins so that we might die to sin and live to righteousness. We should distinguish His saving work from the conduct we're called to imitate.
His restraint didn't mean he approved of evil. Jesus exposed hypocrisy and called people to repent, while refusing personal revenge. Yet He refused to make personal retaliation the governing aim of His response. That combination matters. Following Him doesn't require us to say that evil is harmless. It calls us to tell the truth without allowing bitterness, revenge, or contempt to become our guide.
Remember the mercy you've needed
Before we think about someone else's need to change, remember our own need for mercy. Romans 5:6–8 shows God's love in Christ's death for the ungodly. The gospel doesn't begin with our successful effort to become worthy of rescue. It begins with the love of God toward sinners who can't provide their own atonement.
That mercy calls for gratitude and repentance. We receive the gospel by trusting Christ and submitting to his will, rather than merely admiring how generous he is. Acts 2:38 joins repentance and baptism with the promise of forgiveness. These responses don't purchase grace. They express the submission of people who know that salvation comes through Christ and who are ready to turn from sin toward Him.
Learn what Jesus teaches
In Matthew 11:28–30, Jesus invites the weary to come and learn from him. His gentleness welcomes us into discipleship, where his instruction can change our lives. We need His instruction about prayer, enemies, honesty, forgiveness, and service. Reading the Gospels carefully gives substance to our desire to reflect His character.
Matthew 5–7 brings his teaching close to ordinary problems: anger, display, possessions, and judgment. Read patiently enough to hear what Jesus actually asks of us. Read a passage in context, ask what Jesus actually teaches, and consider how obedience fits your situation. Warm feelings toward a general idea of Jesus can't substitute for that attention. Nor should a personal interpretation be announced as His command simply because it seems compassionate in the moment. Take time to distinguish a command from a helpful personal practice. Reading a Gospel each year can be a valuable habit, but that schedule isn't itself a biblical law. Likewise, a memorable song can direct attention to a true principle without becoming the authority for doctrine. Let Scripture establish the teaching and let other material serve as an occasion to examine it.
Love without excusing harm
Matthew 5:43–48 tells disciples to love enemies and pray for persecutors. The person's wrongdoing doesn't remove our responsibility to seek their real good. An enemy remains a person whose good matters before God. We can pray for repentance, refuse slander, and decline opportunities for retaliation even when the offense was serious.
Love doesn't require renewed access for someone who harms people. Truthful reporting, protection, and appropriate distance can belong within a responsible response. The inner refusal of hatred can accompany firm external limits. Christ's way calls us to seek what is truly good, and enabling continued wrongdoing isn't a faithful form of love. When emotions are strong, delay a needless response long enough to ask what you're trying to accomplish. Do you want to protect someone, correct an error, or simply make the offender feel your pain? Those aims can produce very different words. Seeking counsel may help you choose a response that addresses the wrong without multiplying it. A useful pause can include writing a reply before sending it. Read it again for the aim beneath the words. Does it name the wrong accurately, or does it add a claim about the person's motives that you can't know? Removing that accusation may make the necessary truth clearer and leave room for a responsible answer.
Help carry a burden
Galatians 6:1–2 joins gentle restoration with bearing burdens. The person offering help needs to remember their own vulnerability too. There is no room for the attitude that another person's weakness proves our superiority. The instruction invites compassionate assistance that's conscious of our own vulnerability.
A burden may call for time, listening, or practical work. Some needs require help beyond our knowledge or ability. Offering support doesn't make us responsible to solve every problem or available without limits. Ask what would genuinely help, keep promises realistic, and avoid making the person's difficulty a stage for your own importance. A modest, dependable act may serve them better than a dramatic promise you can't sustain. Ask about the burden before choosing the help. Someone restoring order after a hard week may need a meal or practical assistance before they're ready for a long conversation. Someone facing a moral struggle may need gentle truth as well as companionship. Attend to the actual need rather than giving only the help you find easiest to offer.
Keep hope in the hard place
In Acts 16:22–25, Paul and Silas pray and sing after being beaten and imprisoned. Their suffering hasn't ended, but their allegiance to God remains. It doesn't mean pain was insignificant, and it doesn't establish that believers must suppress every expression of fear or grief. Faith can worship honestly while acknowledging that a situation is hard.
Let the actual account encourage you: Paul and Silas sang in prison, while 1 Peter 2 describes Jesus' faithful trust under suffering. Keeping those examples accurate helps us receive what Scripture really says. Each example gives us its own encouragement. Paul and Silas show worship under pressure; Christ gives us the sinless trust Peter calls us to imitate. Christian hope rests in the risen Lord, not in a guarantee that every immediate hardship will end favorably.
Let your conduct point toward Christ
Your response may help someone see Christ's kindness more clearly. Honesty and self-control can make a gospel conversation more credible. It can't replace explaining the gospel, and it can't force someone to believe or repent.
Think of one relationship that needs a truthful act of love. Consider what's happened and which responsibility is actually yours before deciding what to do. Pray, consult Christ's teaching, and decide on a response you can offer sincerely. Perhaps you need to apologize, answer without contempt, provide practical help, or maintain a boundary without revenge. Let the aim be their real good and Christ's honor. Following His way is a continuing life of grateful obedience, not a single impressive reaction. Don't judge the value of obedience only by the other person's immediate reaction. They may misunderstand a kindness or refuse a conversation. You remain responsible for truthfulness and love, while they remain responsible for their choices. If your first attempt is clumsy, acknowledge it and learn rather than concluding that Christ's teaching has failed. His example calls for patient faithfulness, including humility about our own imperfect efforts.
Take the idea with you.
- 01What part of Jesus' example most challenges my usual response?
- 02What truthful act of love is needed in one relationship today?
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