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“To have mercy to the guilty is cruelty to the innocent” Adam Smith

This quote delineates misplaced compassion leniency or forgiveness toward wrong doers directly results in further suffering for their victims. Accountability resulting in justice must balance mercy. Protecting wrongdoers without consequence renders the innocent unsafe!

Proverbs 17:15 He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike and the end an abomination to the Lord.

Proverbs 24:24 Whoever says to the guilty ‘you are innocent’ will be cursed by peoples and by nations but it will go well with those who convict the guilty and rich blessing will come on them.’

Ecclesiastes 8:11 because the sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily the heart of the children of men is fully set to do evil.

All of us are responsible. As it states in Romans 14:12 each one of us will give an account to God. The fact that leaders have double accountability does not release the person in the pew.

The modern-day equivalent of this diffusion of moral responsibility is seen in the bystander effect. A crime happens and everyone thinks that someone else will call 9-1-1 to report it. Not one takes responsibility for what they saw or heard.

Exodus 23:2 you shall not fall in with the majority to do evil, nor shall you bear witness in a lawsuit siding with the majority so as to pervert justice.

This behaviour is alive and well in the passing of the buck among the leaders who refused to take responsibility to remove Shawn Bolz from Christian ministry. Bethel’s public statement reflected that they did not take responsibility in the situation because Shawn was not on their staff.

They had a moral responsibility as church leaders who endorsed him to remove that endorsement.

Proverbs 24:11 rescue those who are being taken away to death. If you say behold, we did not know this…does not he who weighs the heart perceive it.”

 Some say about this, “It has nothing to do with me.”

All of us have a responsibility to stand with the word of God and what it says about ANY situation. Justice and righteousness are the foundations of His throne as much as mercy. ‘Unsanctified mercy’ or mercy to the unrepentant is no mercy at all. Firstly, not to the victim, but not even to the perpetrator. To allow him to continue in his sin is condemning him to further judgment. Jude 22,23 says “And have mercy on some who are doubting save others snatching them out of the fire have mercy with fear hating even the garment polluted by the flesh.”

My daily reading yesterday took me to Exodus 21:28 Now if an ox gores a man or a woman to death the ox shall certainly be stoned and its flesh shall not be eaten but the owner of the ox shall go unpunished. 29 If however, an ox was previously in the habit of goring, and its owner has been warned yet he does not confine it and it kills a man or a woman the ox shall be stoned, and the owner also shall be put to death.

To those of you who would respond to me by saying that is an Old Testament Scripture we’re under grace now. My response is I believe Jesus would have stronger words for someone who would repeatedly allow someone to harm PEOPLE. Does not Matthew 18:6 come to mind? Jesus warns that it would be better for someone to have a large millstone hung around their neck and be drowned in the sea than to cause a child or a believer to sin.

The title of this post refers to the story of Cain and Abel, “Am I my brother’s keeper” You can find it in Genesis 4. God’s response to this question is an undeniable, unavoidable “yes” I would dare say none of us like confrontation. But that is not God’s way or what His word says. His word is like a mirror, continually confronting me. I bump up against it all the time. I must not change the word but must allow the word to change me. I cannot discard anything that does not suit my ‘sympathies or opinion! That is something I see as a major issue in contemporary church culture. Scriptures being used to support my position instead of positioning myself under the scripture. There are no moral absolutes or absolute truths,  all can be subjective to my understanding.

The first of the ten steps to sobriety in AA is the commitment to confess my inability to change and to submit to God or a ‘higher power of my understanding.’  This could easily describe today’s church. We think it our right to only submit to a God I understand or agree with.

God help us if we are limited to the resources of the minds of humanity to apprehend truth!

Today’s takeaway. In our effort to make mercy accessible it seems to me we have discarded objective standards established in the bible. Would you consider before the Lord what you believe about the tension between justice and mercy? Would you ask Him to establish you as someone willing to confront deception and or report an abuser? To be someone like the child in the story of the Emperor’s New Clothes. Choosing  to confront deception and not care what I might lose?

Am I my brother’s keeper?

Lord this day I choose life and to do that I need to do to walk in Your ways. You have shown me clearly in Your word how to do that. I confess that I want to obey but because of my duplicitous heart I often do not follow through.

Please create in me a clean heart.

Unite my heart to fear Your Name.

All the love my friends.