The only true and enduring motivation for the ministry of mercy is an experience and grasp of the grace of God in the gospel.  If we know we are sinners saved by grace alone[1], we will be both open and generous to the outcasts and the unlovely.

There are two powerful effects that the gospel of grace has on a person who has been touched by it.

1.  Grace and Loving Outcasts.

The person who knows that he received mercy while an undeserving enemy of God will have a heart of love for even (and especially!) the most ungrateful and difficult persons[2]…He thinks:  “Spiritually, I was just like these people, though physically and socially I never was where they are now.  They are outcasts.  I was an outcast.”

God gives mercy to the ungrateful and the wicked – that is what we were.  So shall we be like our Father in heaven if we show mercy even to these.  See the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matt. 18:21-35. Then Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?” Jesus answered, “I tell you, not seven times, but seventy-seven times.

The language of the Christian Heart sounds like the following:  “I am only where I am by the sheer and unmerited mercy of God.  I am completely equal with all other people.”  This understanding from the heart wells up compassion for all people who need the mercy of God.

2. Grace and Generosity

The second major effect that the gospel of grace has on a person is that it creates spontaneous generosity.

One of the reasons that Jesus puts the Samaritan in the parable is that he, by virtue of his race and history, has no obligations at all to stop and give aid.  Yet he stops.  Why?  Luke 10:33 tells us he was motivated by his compassion.

Mercy is commanded, but it must not be the response to a command, it is an overflowing generosity as a response to the mercy of God, which we received.

Often books and speakers tell Christians that they should help the needy because they have so much.  Of course this is true.  But this approach is very limited in its motivating power.  Ultimately is produces guilt.  The Bible does not use the guilt-producing motivation, yet it powerfully argues for the ministry of mercy.

Mercy is spontaneous, superabounding love, which comes from an experience of the grace of God.  The deeper the experience of the free grace of God, the more generous we must become.

What motivates you to love the poor?  the outcasts?  the unlovely?

Do you think of yourself as someone who is spiritually poor, a sinner, and in need of God’s mercy? Take some time to reflect on your need for God’s mercy.  Own your sin and your need of a savior.

Now, reflect on the grace of God showered upon you through the gospel.  Go and do likewise.

Much of the content of this blog can be found verbatim in the book Ministries of Mercy by Tim Keller.

[2] Romans 5:8ff