Titus 3:3-7

Did you ever play “mercy”?  You know, the game where you engage someone in a wrestling match, get him in a choke hold and keep it until he yells “mercy!”  You have him in submission; in humiliation he pleads for mercy.

The cry for “mercy” is no game.  It permeates the Psalms.  David pleads for mercy when he maintains his integrity as well as when he acknowledges his horrible situation.  Have mercy upon me, O God, according to Your lovingkindness; according to the multitude of Your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions (Ps. 51:1).  It permeates the gospels too: from the blind and lame, the demon possessed, and the Gentile mother pleading for her daughter.  

They all plead for mercy because they are in trouble and have no way out.  Mercy is defined as the act of sparing, or the forbearance of a violent act expected (Webster’s 1828).  Strong calls it compassion, pity, a tenderness to one in trouble.  The first Biblical use of mercy defines it by illustration; God was merciful to Lot, forcefully removing him from Sodom, the place Lot chose to live (Gen. 19:16-19).  Some make this distinction between mercy and grace:

Mercy: God does not give us what we deserve.

Grace: God gives us what we do not deserve.

Mercy believes that all are sinners, hell is real, and judgment is inevitable.  What does that say about us given the fact that God saved us by mercy?  The detailed answer to that question is in Titus 3:3.    Living in sin (what the Psalmist called the miry clay and horrible pit, Ps. 40:2) we were:

·        Foolish. The fool says there is no God.  We lived as practical atheists.

·        Disobedient.  To God above all but to parents, civil authority, any authority.

·        Deceived.  We thought we were great stuff, happy, satisfied, only to find ourselves actually living enslaved lives.

·        Serving various lusts.  Serving is from the Greek doulos, bondslaves.  Though we touted our freedom we were enslaved to desires that were killing us.

·        Serving various pleasures.  That’s what we mean.  The lusts led us to alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex, eating, gambling, technology; all of which had the possibility of what we call addiction but which the Bible calls slavery!  Eventually what had been our chosen pleasure took control of us.

·        Living in malice.  Living is not the term for exuberant life; it simply means to pass the time.  We passed the time in every kind of evil.

·        Living in envy.  Never happy with a repeat of yesterday we had an insatiable demand for something more, which led to constant conflict with our neighbor.

·        Being hateful.  Bitter, angry all the time, at everything.

·        Hating one another.  And thus without a true friend in the world!

Do not write this off as an unreal picture.  It is the way life goes.  It is a horrible pit and, if we respond properly, it will result in a cry for mercy!