Do not let kindness and truth leave you; Bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart. So you will find favor and good repute in the sight of God and man. Proverbs 3:3-4
“To love mercy. That is, to love to exercise it; or to exercise kindness and compassion to one’s neighbor; to the poor or distressed [Micah 6:8].
We may observe here, that it is not merely some external act of kindness to the needy or distressed, which is enjoined; which one may perform with great reluctance, from some sinister motive; but to love mercy is what is enjoined; to love to do acts of kindness.
Agreeably to this, saith the Apostle, “Let every man give according as he purposeth in his heart; not grudgingly, or of necessity; for God loveth a cheerful giver” [2 Corinthians 9:7].
And in another passage, the Apostle intimates that a man may give all his goods to feed the poor, and have no charity; and asserts that such an act will profit him nothing; but it is charity or love, which is acceptable to God [1 Corinthians 13:3].
He requires of man to love mercy; to be of a merciful disposition; not merely to perform external acts of kindness occasionally; and for some selfish end; but really to take pleasure in doing good.”
Joseph Barker Sermon 15 on Micah 6:6-8 in Sermons On Various Subjects (Boston: William Pierce, 1835).
When we dare look deeply into the heart of God, we find that God loves mercy, kindness, and truth. As I think about this idea and explore it in classic sermons, I find a striking insight. Most people don’t love mercy, kindness, and truth.
Most people don’t love mercy. Most people want wrongdoers to get condemnation, forgetting they themselves are wrongdoers. These say, “They must get what they deserve.” I see it worldwide. It is the opposite of mercy. If we all got what we deserved, we would get death and eternal separation from God.
Most people don’t love kindness. We see this on the roads of the world. “Get out of my way!” Such is the proclivity of our flesh: to care only about ourselves often at the expense of others. Alternatively, kindness opens the door for others like Christ opened the door of heaven for us.
Most people don’t love truth. They exchange truth for a lie saying, “truth is whatever I want it to be,” rather than “truth is the way things really are.” Thus, they neither want to know God for who He is nor to see themselves for who they really are.
What’s all this have to do with generosity as we start another week?
God desires us to serve as conduits of generosity, but He cares more about the qualities forming within us as givers than the measure of our giving. He was us to be merciful, kind, and truthful givers who “take real pleasure in doing good.” When this happens, we become the kind of givers that He deeply loves.