“To the faithful you show yourself faithful; to those with integrity you show integrity. To the pure you show yourself pure, but to the crooked you show yourself shrewd.”
Psalm 18:25-26 NLT
David wrote that God responds to our faithfulness and integrity in our dealings with others, with faithfulness and integrity to us. In the Amplified version of these verses, we receive a little more clarity, “With the kind (merciful, faithful, loyal) You show Yourself kind, With the blameless You show Yourself blameless, With the pure You show Yourself pure, And with the crooked You show Yourself astute“. I suppose it is quite logical really – if we are kind to others, then God will be kind to us as well. We know all about that from Galatians 6:7-8, “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. Whoever sows to please their flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; whoever sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life“. In the Beatitudes, Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). We also know from the Lord’s Prayer a principle about treating others – “And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors” (Matthew 6:12). Putting it bluntly, to a certain degree, God will treat us in the same way as we treat others, that is, until we consider the Cross. Are we not very glad that God hasn’t treated us as our sins deserve, instead considering us righteous through our repentance of sins, and forgiveness from Jesus? Thankfully, God does not immediately punish us every time we commit a sin, or think a sinful thought.
David continued with thoughts about purity. Again, I suppose it is quite logical, that an impure person will not be able to see God’s purity. This will only become clear when the person looking at God is pure himself, which is perhaps why we only see God as Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 13:12, “Now we see things imperfectly, like puzzling reflections in a mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity. All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God now knows me completely“. Back in the Beatitudes, Jesus taught, “God blesses those whose hearts are pure, for they will see God” (Matthew 5:8). The converse therefore has to be true, in that an impure, sinful, heart will blind our eyes to God.
We pilgrims live in a season of God’s grace, in that He amazingly forgives us our sins, and declares us righteous before Him. But that grace shown to us has to be extended to those we meet and greet every day. Jesus told the story of a man who owed his king a debt far beyond what he could ever repay. Threatened with imprisonment for himself and his family until the debt could be repaid, he begged the king for forgiveness, and the story continues with the man being forgiven for the whole debt by the king, who took pity on him. But the same man then went and demanded from one of his fellow servants repayment of a comparatively insignificant debt. Unfortunately the man had his fellow servant thrown into prison until the debt was repaid. we pick up the story in Matthew 18:31-34 “When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened. ‘Then the master called the servant in. “You wicked servant,” he said, “I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?” In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed”. Ominously, the story ends with Jesus saying, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart“.
There is a different economy in the Kingdom of God based on forgiveness and righteousness. Because we pilgrims have been forgiven a debt that would be impossible to pay in our own strength, we have a different perspective on all those around us. Rather than looking on in judgement, we look through a Heavenly lens, illuminating grace and love. And we apply the fruits of our forgiveness to those less fortunate, showing them a glimpse of our Heavenly Father’s heart.
Dear Father God. Thank You that we can stand righteously before You, having been forgiven a debt far beyond our wildest expectations. In amazement at Your grace and favour, we worship You today. Amen.
Being a Pilgrim 