Using the Law lawfully

Posted on July 27, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

(Only audio of the sermon is available. Click here to download.)

Sermon for Trinity 6

Romans 6:3-11 + Matthew 5:20-26

Early in His ministry, Jesus was not well understood by the Jews. He came preaching a message that the Gospel writers summarize with, “The kingdom of heaven is at hand! Repent and believe the Gospel!” The “Gospel”? What about “the Law”? What about Moses and the Prophets? What about the Ten Commandments, with which every single Jew was intimately familiar? Was Jesus abandoning them? Was He trying to replace them with a different message? That’s what the scribes and Pharisees were accusing Him of. But in the verses just before today’s Gospel from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus corrected His disciples’ understanding: Do not think that I came to destroy the Law or the Prophets. I did not come to destroy but to fulfill.

Well, then, why were the Pharisees and the teachers of the Law still persecuting Jesus? They, too, were keenly interested in fulfilling the Law. So what was the problem? What was the difference between their teaching of the Law and Jesus’ teaching of it? The difference was that the Pharisees and teachers of the Law weren’t using the law lawfully, while Jesus was. St. Paul wrote to Timothy, We know that the law is good, if one uses it lawfully, understanding this, that the law is not laid down for the just but for the lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for those who strike their fathers and mothers, for murderers, the sexually immoral, men who practice homosexuality, enslavers, liars, perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine. Let’s dig into today’s Gospel and discover what it means to use the Law lawfully—and unlawfully.

How were the teachers of the Law using the Law unlawfully? We can point to two things. First, the Pharisees and teachers of the Law weren’t teaching the Law hard enough. They dumbed it down. They made it too easy to obey, because they made it all about outward obedience. What do I have to do to fulfill the Law? “Don’t curse your parents. Don’t murder anyone. Don’t sleep with another man’s wife. Don’t take someone else’s property. Give at least 10% of your income to the Lord. And do no work at all on the Sabbath Day.” That just about summed it up, for them. Yes, the Pharisees added more laws than that, a whole list of specific actions people were able to take, if they applied themselves. But essentially, if they were able to do those simple things, they thought they were fulfilling the Law.

But that’s not how Jesus explained the Law and how to fulfill it. He says in our text, I say to you that unless your righteousness exceeds the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, you will by no means enter the kingdom of heaven. For all their reputation as the best and brightest within the Church, for all their infatuation with the Law, the Pharisees weren’t keeping the Law well enough to gain heaven by it.

Jesus goes on to explain, using a few examples from the Ten Commandments and from other laws embedded in the Old Testament. You have heard that it was said to the people of old, ‘You shall not murder,’ and, ‘Whoever murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I say to you that whoever is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. And whoever says to his brother, ‘Raca!’ will be subject to the council; but whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be subject to hellfire. So Jesus agrees with the Law, You shall not murder. But, as He goes on to explain, the Law requires more than just not killing someone. It requires that you never become unjustly angry with your brother or hate your brother. It requires that that you never speak hurtful, harmful, nasty words to your brother.

He goes on, Therefore if you bring your gift to the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there before the altar, and go your way; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and offer your gift. Agree with your adversary quickly, while you are on the way with him, lest your adversary deliver you to the judge, and the judge deliver you to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. Truly I say to you, you will by no means get out of there until you have paid the last penny. In other words, the Pharisees taught that offerings and sacrifices made up for a person’s sins against his brother. They thought that such “little” sins against their brother, like anger, like hurtful words, could be easily taken care by simply bringing a nice offering to God. But Jesus says, no, the Law requires more than that. It requires that, if you injure your brother in any way, you make it up to him, not just to God. And if you refuse to do that, don’t imagine that God will accept you. No, the Law continues to accuse you as unrighteous. There’s no way you can be saved by it.

After our text ends, Jesus goes on to talk about another Commandment, You shall not commit adultery. But, as He explains, the Law requires more than just not sleeping with another person’s husband or wife. It requires pure and chaste thoughts, in your heart, in your mind. I say to you that whoever looks at a woman to lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart. This is why God gave a Ninth and a Tenth Commandment, where the Law forbids coveting—desiring or lusting after anything that belongs to your neighbor. The Law commands, not only the hands, but the lips, and, above all, the heart.

So, even though the Pharisees and teachers of the Law sang the praises of the Law, they weren’t using it lawfully, because they weren’t teaching it with the full force of its scope and its condemnation. They made it too easy for themselves and for others to keep, when in reality, the demands of the Law are much broader and all-encompassing, demanding that a person’s whole life—words, deeds, and desires—be devoted to serving God and one’s neighbor. To teach the Law that way is to use it lawfully, to use it in its full force as a mirror that shows impenitent sinners how far they have strayed from the holiness that God requires.

Because the Pharisees and teachers of the Law didn’t understand just how much the Law required of them, they also used it unlawfully in another way: Because they thought they could keep it if they worked hard enough, they also used it, and pointed people to it, as the path to get into God’s kingdom. But that is an unlawful use of the Law. As St. Paul writes to the Romans, If there had been a law given which could have given life, truly righteousness would have been by the Law. But, he says, the Scripture has confined all under sin, that the promise by faith in Jesus Christ might be given to those who believe.

Contrary to popular opinion at the time of Jesus, the Law was never intended to give life to anyone. That is, no one was ever supposed to draw close to God by his careful keeping of the Law. The Pharisees viewed the Law as the ultimate goal. They preached the Law in such a way that the people would go running to the Law for salvation. Jesus, on the other hand, preached the Law in such a way that, once people realized how impossible it was to reach God through the Law, they would flee from the Law, toward Him, toward His Gospel, for salvation.

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets, even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe.

In order to use the Law lawfully, you can’t use it to work your way into heaven. You can’t send people to it in order to save them. You use the Law lawfully when you use it to show impenitent sinners their sins, so that they might come to realize how much they need the Gospel, so that they might turn from their sins in repentance and turn toward Christ Jesus for the gift of the forgiveness of sins, life, and salvation—the gift that’s promised in the Gospel.

Only then, only when the poor sinner has been brought to repentance, and has found salvation in Christ after hearing the Gospel promise, only then, when a person has been born again, through the Gospel, through faith, does the Law have another lawful use. For those who have been born again of water and the Spirit, baptized into the death of Christ, having their sins washed away, the Law no longer accuses, no longer condemns. For penitent believers, for Christians, the Law serves as a wonderful guide for serving God and our neighbor.

If you try to guide the impenitent with the Law, that’s an unlawful use of it. Telling an unbeliever who’s living in adultery, for example, to stop living in adultery, as if that would mend their relationship with God—that’s using the Law unlawfully. Telling a classroom of public school students to keep God’s commandment, “You shall not steal,” as if, by not stealing, they would be keeping God’s Law, as if, by not stealing, they would be pleasing to God, is to use the Law unlawfully. But telling a baptized believer to flee from adultery, to steal no longer, urging a believer to learn and to keep God’s commandments, yes, that’s a lawful use of the Law, one that Jesus uses often when talking to His disciples, one that His apostles use often in their Epistles when writing to baptized Christians, one that you’ll often hear me using among you, who have confessed Christ Jesus as your Lord.

The works of the Law can’t make anyone acceptable to God. First the person has to be made acceptable, through faith in Christ Jesus, by trusting in God’s promised mercy for Christ’s sake, and then he can begin to do works that are acceptable to God, works that are guided and informed by God’s commandments. It’s to such acceptable, baptized believers in Jesus that Paul writes in today’s Epistle, In the same way, you also, count yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Your faith-righteousness already exceeds the Law-righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, and by it you are already qualified for heaven. Now learn and study God’s holy Law, and be careful to put all God’s commandments into practice, so that your lives on earth may reflect the righteousness that is already yours by faith in Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Called to be salt and light

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

(Only audio of the sermon is available for this service.)

Click here to download the audio.

Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 5

Matthew 5:13-16

On Sunday you heard about the tasks to which you, along with all Christians, have been called, tasks to perform throughout your earthly life, tasks that serve to build up Christ’s beloved Church. They’re not flashy, extraordinary tasks. They’re the tasks involved in daily sanctification, as we walk not according to the flesh but according to the New Man who is led by the Spirit of God, as we speak, and behave, and even think differently, righteously, with reverence for God and love for our neighbor. They’re the tasks that form the Christian life—distinguishing the Christian life from the life of unbelievers, forcing the world to acknowledge that you and I, as Christians, are different, that we are servants of God, that we have something special as members of Christ’s holy Church, that we have something to offer to the world, something precious, something admirable, something desirable.

In the four verses you heard this evening from the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus taught His disciples that lesson by using two metaphors to describe what Christians truly are: You are salt, He says. And you are light.

You are the salt of the earth. You Christians, you children of God, you who know God, who know the difference between right and wrong, who know Jesus’ love and Jesus’ sacrifice, who have been born again, and who know how to lead God-pleasing lives in the world—you are the salt of the earth. You add a necessary component to human society. When you live as Christians in the world, when you speak like Christians, when you behave as God’s Spirit teaches you to behave in His Word, then you have a positive effect on the world.

That doesn’t mean, as some people think it means, that Christians are supposed to take over the world, or control the culture. Far from it! Salt isn’t supposed to take over a dish. It’s supposed to enhance everything it touches, make it tastier, make it better. And so you do, in the world, when you live lives of love, when you live according to God’s commandments, when your words are seasoned with God’s word and with God’s truth, and with praise for the God of your salvation. You enhance the world when you keep apart from wickedness—without smugly or pridefully looking down on the wicked. You make the world better when you don’t return insult for insult or injury for injury, but entrust your cause to God. You season the world when you choose to suffer rather than to sin, when you choose to forgive rather than holding a grudge, when you choose to hope rather than despair.

But if the salt loses its flavor, how shall it become salty again? It is then good for nothing but to be thrown out and trampled underfoot by men. In other words, you are intended to be a blessing to the world. You’re intended to be a good influence on it. But if you Christians fail to be what you are, if you fail to live differently from how the unbelievers of the world live, if you go right along with them in their focus on this life, and in pursuing the riches, cares, and pleasures of it, then what good are you? Then you become like salt that has lost its flavor, that no longer has any purpose. Be careful not to let that happen!

Then Jesus moves on to His second metaphor. You are the light of the world. You know how dark this world is. People don’t know the true God by nature. The natural knowledge of God, the things that are knowable about God through nature, aren’t nearly enough to guide anyone to Him. How much less in these especially dark times in which we live, when most people deny even the things about God that they could and should know from nature. The world is dark when it comes to knowing and believing in God. It’s dark when it comes to knowing right from wrong. It’s dark in its wickedness and violence, and in its hatred of Christ and His Church, and even of truth itself. But the Lord Jesus has left behind a light in this dark world, a light for men to know Him, a light for men to be saved, a light for men to walk by so that they no longer live as slaves to sin. You are that light—you, and every Christian, everyone whom God has called out of darkness into His marvelous light. You are the light that God has given to this dark and dying world, to reflect Christ, who is the true Light, to those who sit in darkness.

A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. This is where Ronald Reagan, and the Puritans before him, got their image of America (or the city of Boston) being a “shining city on a hill.” But they took that image out of context. The “city on a hill” isn’t a city, or a country. It’s the Holy Christian Church, which is not synonymous with any city or country on earth. God has set the Church on a hill, as it were, to be a light, to be a beacon, to be a fortress in which men can find refuge.

Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Again, God has placed you, the members of His Church, as lights in the world that are not to be hidden away, that are not to be covered, but as lights that are to shine brightly and give light to all people. That doesn’t mean that each of you is to be seen by everyone, everywhere in the world. It just means that, in the scope of your existence, in the ways in which God enables you to interact with other people, He has put you there, intentionally, to give light to those around you.

Let your light so shine before men, Jesus says, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Letting your light shine means doing good works in the sight of men, shunning evil, doing and saying what is right, good, helpful, and beneficial, not to earn a place in heaven for yourself, but all for your Father’s glory, that men may see you, a Christian, living unhypocritically, living a sincere, genuine, godly, upright life, that men may give praise and glory to God for turning you into such a person, and for being such a great God that His children are led to serve Him in the world with such grace and with such truth.

Now, you and I know that not all Christians live as such lights. It doesn’t matter! There’s nothing you can or need to do about “them.” All you need to focus on is you, how you live, how you speak, how your light shines. Focus on yourself, and let your light shine!

But, this is important. Only focus on yourself when the question is, what would God have me do as His child in the world? When you’re called upon to live your life in the world, that is the question before you. But at other times, when it comes to your soul, your conscience, when it comes to your salvation, then the question is different. How can I know that I have a gracious God? How can I know that He accepts me as a son or a daughter? When that is the question, you dare not focus on yourself at all. When that is the question, focus only on the Lord Jesus Christ, and what He has done for you. Why are you the light of the world? Because Christ, the true Light, has shined on you with His Gospel, called you to faith in Him, and forgiven you all your sins. Only now, as a forgiven, accepted, beloved child of God, are you called to this crucial task of living as the salt of the earth and as the light of the world. May everything you say and do point people to the Lord Jesus! Amen.

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God-given tasks for building up the Church

Posted on July 20, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

(Only the audio of the sermon is available for today’s service.)

Click here to download audio. Click here to download the service insert.

Sermon for Trinity 5

1 Peter 3:8-15 + Luke 5:1-11

These Sundays in the Trinity season give us a little taste of different aspects of the Christian life. Two weeks ago, we saw how zealously God seeks the lost, brings them to repentance, and forgives them their sins. Last week, we saw how He instructs the forgiven to walk in the ways of His mercy. Today, we see the Lord giving certain tasks to the forgiven, so that, through us, He might build up His beloved Church, the precious body of Christ. The Gospel emphasizes one task that is given to some within the Church, for building up the Church, while the Epistle focuses on other tasks that are given to all Christians, also for the building up of the Church.

Let’s start with the Gospel, the account of how Jesus’ first disciples were called, there by the shores of the Sea of Galilee.

This wasn’t their first encounter with Jesus. John’s Gospel helps us to understand that. John the Baptist had introduced them to Jesus some time before this, and they had followed Him up to Cana, where He had performed His first miracle. After that, it seems that they went back to their regular jobs as fishermen for a little while, because Jesus hadn’t yet called them to full-time following. But that would change after today.

There they were, Peter and Andrew by their boat, mending their nets after catching nothing at all the night before. James and John were doing the same thing by their boat, a little way down the beach. Jesus stepped into Peter’s boat and used it as a makeshift pulpit so that He could preach to the large crowds. But preaching wasn’t His only reason for being there that day. He was about to do something momentous. He was about to call the first four of the men whom we now know as the twelve apostles. And the way He did it was a real teaching moment, for them and for the Church throughout the ages.

Jesus asked Peter to put out toward the deep water and to let down their nets for a catch. Peter was skeptical. They had worked all night and had caught nothing. The fish just weren’t there. But he had already heard and seen enough from Jesus to know that he shouldn’t refuse, so he said, Master, we have toiled throughout the night and have caught nothing. But at your word, I will let down the nets. And as soon as he did, such a great number of fish flooded into those nets that they began to tear. James and John came over with their boat and, even with the two boats, they could barely bring the fish to the shore. This was no ordinary catch. They all knew it. They were amazed. So much so that Peter got down on his knees in utter fear in the presence of this powerful Man, this holy Man who had divine power over the sea and the creatures that live in it. Depart from me, Lord, he said, for I am a sinful man!

If only all people had that kind of genuine humility and fear in the presence of the holy God! Today, it seems that most people want to joke around or play around in the presence of God, but Peter knew better, like the prophet Isaiah did, who, when confronted with God’s presence, cried out, Woe is me, for I am undone! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts. That’s the right initial response of all men in the presence of the holy God. But God didn’t destroy Isaiah. Instead, He called him to be a prophet. In the same way, Jesus didn’t depart from Peter, much less destroy him. Instead, He called him, along with Andrew, James and John: Follow Me, and I will make you into fishers of men.

We learn several things from this account. First, the apostles didn’t go seeking to become apostles. Jesus came to them, and called them, selecting them out of all His other followers to work together with Him—to work together, not in bearing the sins of the world, not in redeeming mankind—only Jesus could do that. But to work together with Him in building His Church, in reconciling the world to God, in bringing sinners to repentance, and to faith in Christ Jesus, the world’s Redeemer, thereby bringing them out of the vast ocean of those who are perishing into the safety, into the peace, into the everlasting joy of His holy Christian Church. That’s what it means to be “fishers of men,” or, as we often call them, ministers of the Gospel.

And the means of bringing people into the boat? It isn’t a hook. It isn’t a lure. It’s just nets. It’s the means of grace. It’s the preaching of the Gospel, which is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes. No gimmicks. No deceit. No false promises. Just the powerful promise of the forgiveness of sins for the sake of Christ and the atonement He made for sins on the cross. Just the promise of the forgiveness of sins through the Baptism that Christ instituted, where He promises to wash away a person’s sins and adopt him or her into God’s family. Just the continual promise of the forgiveness of sins through the Sacrament of the Altar, where Christ hands out His body and blood, the price He paid for our atonement. These are the nets that God calls some men to let down, so that many people, both men and women, may call upon the name of Jesus, so that many may be brought into His boat, so that the Church of Christ may be built up.

But, as Paul points out to the Romans in chapter 10, How then shall they call on Him in whom they have not believed? And how shall they believe in Him of whom they have not heard? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they are sent? Who does that sending? It’s always Jesus. He did it directly with Peter, Andrew, James, and John in today’s Gospel, as He did with the rest of the apostles, including St. Paul. But He isn’t done sending men to be fishers of men.

After He ascended into heaven, Christ continued to send, but no longer directly (except for St. Paul). As we’ve been studying in Ephesians, Christ gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors & teachers. These are examples of job descriptions within what we call the office of the holy ministry, the ministry of preaching the Word and administering the Sacraments, the ministry of letting down the Gospel nets for a catch. “Christ gave” and continues to give men to His Church for this ministry. But He now shares that task of sending with the whole Church. This is why we say that the divine call into the office of the ministry is Christ’s call, through the Holy Spirit, through the Holy Church.

That means that Christ has assigned the task to all of you, as Christians, of calling, of sending and supporting the men who carry out the fishing expedition of preaching the Gospel in the world, even as this congregation called me many years ago and continues to support the ministry I carry out among you in Jesus’ name. In a similar way, it’s the God-given task of all Christians, once they’ve received Baptism, to hear and adhere to the teaching that Christ provides, through His ministers, to gather, whenever possible, to sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to one another, to encourage one another as we ride together in this boat, in this ship of the Christian Church, now that we’ve been “caught” and brought into it by the Gospel nets. It’s the God-given task of all Christians to hold one another accountable in this Christian faith, and to show genuine love for one another as we ride toward the heavenly shores.

Peter spoke about this in today’s Epistle as well. All of you, he says, be of one mind. Be sympathetic. Show brotherly love. Be compassionate. Be friendly. Do not repay evil with evil or insults with insults, but on the contrary, pronounce a blessing, knowing that you were called to this. In other words, you were called to be imitators of God, imitators of Jesus, called to walk according to God’s commandments, called to live a life of love, as God defines love in His Word. And when you carry out that calling, in the various vocations to which God has called you, you not only bring glory to the name of our Father in heaven. You do your part in building up the Church. When you show kindness and compassion to those outside the Church, when you suffer wrong without wronging others in return, when you give an answer to those who ask you for an explanation of the hope that is in you, with gentleness and respect, you’re making the Church look good, like a place they might want to be, with a message they might just want to hear. (Of course, the opposite is also true, if you fail to behave like an imitator of God.) Likewise, when you show kindness and compassion to those inside the Church, showing patience and love toward your brothers and sisters in Christ, that goes a long way to building up your fellow Christians and to preserving the unity and the peace we have in the Church of Christ.

And that’s what we have to understand. Everything Jesus does is for the sake of building up His beloved bride, His holy Church, whether it’s sending ministers of the Word to preach and teach and administer the Sacraments, or whether it’s working in the lives of His sons and daughters as each one carries out his or her God-given tasks in the world, both to bring new people into the Church and to preserve and encourage those whom He has already brought in. Everything God does—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—is for the building up of His beloved Church. And thanks be to God—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—that He has both brought us into it, and has given you and me these blessed tasks to carry out within it, granting us the grace of sharing in this all-important work of building up the Church of Christ, a work in which God Himself delights. Amen.

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No judgment in the things God has left free

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki

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Sermon for Midweek of Trinity 4

Romans 14:7-17 (ESV)

Do not judge, we heard Jesus say on Sunday. And we gave some examples of what sinful judging looks like, as opposed to the good, God-pleasing judging that Christians are supposed to do all the time, judging between right and wrong, good and bad, wise and unwise. Judging is good and right, as long as it flows from a heart of mercy, and as long as it is “righteous,” that is, as long as it is in line with the teachings of God’s Word.

And that’s exactly what Paul was writing to the Romans about in the Second Lesson you heard this evening. Christians may well have to judge other Christians in matters of right and wrong, where God’s Word has taught us that certain things are right and others are wrong, that certain things are commanded by God whereas other things are forbidden. Where God’s Word has spoken, judgment can and should be made. We’ll use the example of Chip and Joanna Gaines. For over a decade they’ve hosted a Fixer Upper show on TV, all the while promoting themselves as active Christians. This week, it came out that they’ve produced a new series that includes a family made up of “married” gay men and two children that these men acquired through surrogacy, something that’s clearly unrighteous, according to God’s Word. When Christians began to call out their sinful behavior, they complained, like clockwork, that these Christians were “judging” them. Yes, we are, because God’s Word has spoken on this issue. We judge rightly where God Himself judges.

But where God’s Word has not spoken, where God has not commanded or forbidden something, in such cases, Christians are not to pass judgment on one another.

The specific examples set forth in Romans 14 are the examples of eating or not eating certain foods, observing or not observing certain days as sacred. Let me read for you the verses that come before the verses you heard earlier: As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions. One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. Let not the one who eats despise the one who abstains, and let not the one who abstains pass judgment on the one who eats, for God has welcomed him. Who are you to pass judgment on the servant of another? It is before his own master that he stands or falls. And he will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make him stand. Here Paul calls it a “weakness” in someone’s faith to believe that God only permits him to eat vegetables. It’s a weakness in faith, because it’s a belief that’s not based on God’s Word. It’s a made-up opinion. The truth is, God has permitted mankind to eat meat as well as vegetables. All foods are “clean” under the New Testament.

But, just because it’s permissible to eat meat doesn’t mean that God has commanded all people to eat meat. He hasn’t. So, if a person has such a weak faith, thinking that he would be sinning against God if he eats meat, and, therefore, eats only vegetables, because he’s convinced that God permits him to eat vegetables, so what? Those who know better, that God permits us to eat all kinds of food, have no business passing judgment on the one who only eats vegetables, just as the one who only eats vegetables has no business passing judgment on those who eat meat, because this is an area that God has left free. In matters that are free, neither one is to judge the other.

Or, in a second example, Paul writes: One person esteems one day as better than another, while another esteems all days alike. Each one should be fully convinced in his own mind. The one who observes the day, observes it in honor of the Lord. The one who eats, eats in honor of the Lord, since he gives thanks to God, while the one who abstains, abstains in honor of the Lord and gives thanks to God. Under the Old Testament, God commanded Israel to consider the Sabbath Day as sacred. Under the New Testament, that’s no longer the case. Neither Saturday, nor Sunday, nor any other day of the week or year is more sacred in God’s eyes. This also applies to days like Christmas or Easter or any other holiday that we’ve chosen to observe. God doesn’t command us to observe those days—nor does He forbid us from observing those days. In fact, it’s a weakness in a person’s faith to imagine that a certain day of the week or month or year is actually holy in God’s sight. Sundays, Wednesdays, Christmas and Easter—these days are not holy of themselves. They’re simply the days that we’ve decided together, in Christian freedom, when we’re going to gather to hear God’s Word and receive His Sacraments, which He has commanded us to keep doing.

But what if someone does consider Sunday to be more sacred than another day, and chooses not only to worship on that day, without fail, but to avoid work on that day as well, and to fast on Sundays, and other such things? What if someone is convinced that God wants him in church on every feast day in the Christian calendar, and so he faithfully attends? He’s not harming anyone. No one should judge him for that, just as he shouldn’t judge those who don’t worship on all the same days in the calendar that he does.

For none of us Christians, Paul writes, lives to himself, and none of us dies to himself. For if we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord. So then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, that he might be Lord both of the dead and of the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother? Or you, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God; for it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God.” So then each of us will give an account of himself to God.

Here the Apostle redirects our thinking, reminding us that each believer lives to please God, and even dies to please God. There’s no use trying to nitpick the service that other Christians render to God. On the last day, God will call each Christian to give an account to God, not of his brother, but of himself. That’s a sobering reminder, isn’t it? It’s a reminder to turn away from all sin, including the sin of sinful judging, and to take refuge in the cross of Christ, so that, when we give an account of ourselves to God, we won’t have to answer for our sins, because Christ, in whom we believed, has already answered for them for us. We certainly don’t want to add to our sins by judging—or by despising!—our brother for whom Christ died.

Finally, Paul writes: Therefore let us not pass judgment on one another any longer, but rather decide never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself, but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean. For if your brother is grieved by what you eat, you are no longer walking in love. By what you eat, do not destroy the one for whom Christ died. So do not let what you regard as good be spoken of as evil. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.

The things we’re not supposed to be judging other Christians about—like what they eat or drink, or other things that have nothing to do with God’s commandments about right and wrong—are just distractions from the important things, like walking in love, and true righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit. If we let God define love for us, if we let God define righteousness in His Word, instead of defining them based on our own opinions or ideas, or worse, the world’s opinions and ideas, then we won’t waste our time criticizing and passing judgment over the things that don’t matter, because those things aren’t related to love or to righteousness. Focus on love, which may involve pointing out things that are actually sins, out of love for the sinner. But it may also involve modifying your own behavior, in things that are free, because love’s highest goal is not to “do whatever you want” or to exercise maximum freedom at all times. No, love’s highest goal is to honor God in all things and to serve our brothers and sisters in Christ, just as Christ so selflessly served us, so that, instead of grieving them or causing them to stumble, we help one another along in this life, until, together, we reach our Father’s home. Amen.

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Becoming like our merciful Father in heaven

Posted on July 13, 2025 by Rev. Paul Rydecki
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Sermon for Trinity 4

Romans 8:18-23  +  Luke 6:36-42

Last week we focused on God’s burning desire to find the lost, bring them to repentance, and forgive them. God delights in pardoning iniquity. He celebrates over each sinner whom He brings back into His house. Now, some people, who think of themselves as very loving, very Gospel-oriented, very evangelical Christians, would like to leave it there. “Free forgiveness in Christ! That means you no longer need to hear any instruction from Jesus about how God wants you to behave! You’re free from the law!”

But they’re confused about what that means. Yes, believers in Christ have been freed from the control and condemnation of the Law, from the accusations of the Law, from being “under the Law,” as in, being justified by keeping the Law. But to say that there is no Law in God’s house, no pattern of behavior that He expects of His children, is ridiculous, and unscriptural. The Law, given by God, has its place in bringing people to repentance, as it convicts people of their sin and of their need for Jesus as a Savior from their sin. And it also still has a place in the life of the forgiven. It serves as a constant reminder of why we will always need Jesus. And it also serves as a divinely given, Spirit-inspired guide for behavior within God’s house.

You know that the Law is often summarized with love for God and love for one’s neighbor. Well, in today’s Gospel, Jesus summarizes it this way: Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful. “Be merciful.” Is that really “the Law”? Yes, every time God commands you to do something, or to not do something, or to be or not be a certain way, that’s called “the Law.” The fact that no one is, by nature, merciful just like God is merciful is the reason why we deserve God’s condemnation in the first place. No one is justified by keeping the Law, because the Law reveals, first and foremost, how far short all people fall of God’s standard of goodness. No one is justified by keeping the Law, because no one can earn God’s forgiveness, God’s favor, or a place in His kingdom, just as a child doesn’t earn his status as a son or daughter by doing all his chores around the house. First you have to become a child in God’s house through repentance and faith in Jesus. And just as chores are expected of children, so it is in God’s house, where the “chores” are really nothing more and nothing less than doing the very things your Father does, imitating your Father in heaven, becoming like your Brother, Jesus. Remember, Jesus said, “Be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.” Or as St. Paul put it to the Ephesians in chapter 5, Be imitators of God as dear children. And walk in love, as Christ also has loved us and given Himself for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling aroma. God, as the perfect Father, is the perfect role-model for His children. So imitate God. Love others as Christ has loved you. Be merciful, as your Father is merciful. That’s the chief “rule” in God’s house.

Then Jesus goes on to describe what that mercy looks like in practice. It doesn’t look like judging others or condemning others. It does look like forgiving people, and giving generously to others.

First, Jesus says, Do not judge, and you will not be judged. “Judgment” is not a bad thing. It’s a necessary thing. God expects us to judge all the time, between right and wrong, wise and unwise, good and bad. The kind of judging He forbids is the kind that doesn’t come from mercy, or compassion, or love. You judge another person sinfully when you make yourself the judge of your neighbor’s heart, when you assume his motives to be evil, when you assume him to be lying, although there is no evidence of a lie, when you interpret his words or actions in the unkindest possible way. You judge other people when you nitpick their behavior, or when you make assumptions about them based on incomplete information. You judge other people when you place yourself above them, as their superior, as their “judge,” as the Pharisees often did with their fellow Jews and even with Jesus Himself. There is no mercy involved with such behavior. Do not judge, Jesus says, and you will not be judged. In this case, God, as a wise and loving Father, would teach you the way that is right by promising (or even threatening) to treat you the way you treat others. It’s simply a different way of saying, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Treat your neighbor as you yourself would be treated, by your neighbor, and by God.

In the same way, Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned. There are enough people in the world, condemning this person and condemning that person, all day long. Sometimes social media is nothing but one condemnation after another, not only declaring someone to be wrong, but demonizing them for it, writing them off because of it. Again, the Pharisees are an example for us of what Jesus tells us not to do. They condemned the tax collectors and sinners, wrote them off, wanted nothing more to do with them, spoke unkindly and condescendingly about them, and surely also made fun of them, as they condemned Jesus and ridiculed Jesus Himself. That isn’t mercy, is it? That’s not the way your Father in heaven behaves, nor is it the way you want Him to behave toward you, is it? Be merciful, as your Father is merciful.

That doesn’t mean you don’t speak against wicked behavior. Jesus certainly did that! But there was never a time when mercy was absent from Jesus’ heart. There was never a time when He walked around with His nose up in the air, looking down on those dirty sinners. There was never a time when He didn’t want to show mercy to someone, when He delighted in a person’s condemnation. No, remember how Jesus wept over Jerusalem and over the condemnation Jerusalem would receive for the people’s impenitence and unbelief. If you have a heart like that toward your neighbor, a heart of mercy, then, even when you point out their sin, it won’t be for the purpose of judging or condemning, but of leading them to God.

Forgive, and you will be forgiven. We’ve talked about the pattern of forgiveness before. Our forgiveness is supposed to mimic God’s forgiveness. He delights in forgiveness. He’s eager to forgive. That doesn’t mean that He forgives where there is no repentance. But where there is repentance, He is quick, not slow, to forgive. He expects His children to imitate Him. And He even adds this extra incentive, that when we, as believers in Jesus, forgive others, God will continue to forgive us, whereas, if we deny the mercy of forgiveness to others, we show ourselves not to be children of God at all.

Give, and it will be given to you—a good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, will be placed into your lap. For with the same measure you use it will be measured back to you. Not only has God already given us all things. He promises to give far more when we imitate Him in giving! What greater incentive could He possibly give His children to turn away from all the stinginess that comes so naturally to our sinful nature and to practice the mercy of generosity toward your neighbor? You never have to worry about wasting a gift. You never have to worry about giving too much. Because you have God’s promise that everything you give away will be given back to you in spades, probably not in the same form, but always in great abundance.

Jesus has one more lesson to teach about mercy in the Gospel, a specific way of showing mercy: by leading others in the way they should go, by teaching others something they need to know, by helping to correct a problem you notice in other people. This would be especially important for His disciples who would be teaching others in the future, but also for parents and for all Christians as they seek to live out the Gospel in their lives. But in order to do these things in a godly way, you have to watch out for certain pitfalls.

He told them a parable. “Can the blind lead the blind? Will they not both fall into a ditch?” It’s foolish to try to lead someone if you yourself can’t see where you’re going. If you don’t know God rightly, how will you lead someone else to know Him? If you don’t know God’s teaching of right and wrong, how will you lead someone else to the right? If you don’t know God’s mercy, how will you be able to show mercy? So hearing and meditating on God’s Word, studying it, and praying for the Spirit’s enlightenment are essential, so that you yourself aren’t blind as you try to lead those who are truly blind to the things of God.

A disciple is not above his teacher. But everyone who is thoroughly trained will be like his teacher. It’s remarkable how many people, including pastors, try to go beyond what Jesus taught, try to improve on His teaching. Some of them end up trying to be more evangelical than Jesus. That’s foolishness. If He is the teacher, then don’t imagine you can teach better. But do strive, with the Holy Spirit’s help, to be like your Teacher, in what He teaches, in how He teaches, and in how He treats those around Him. To accomplish that, you need to use the training God provides in the Scriptures and in the ministry He has established for this very purpose, to help build the body of Christ into the image of Christ.

And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but fail to notice the beam in your own eye? Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Brother, let me remove the speck in your eye, when you yourself fail to see the beam in your own eye? Hypocrite! First remove the beam from your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.” This is a warning we all need to take to heart. Before you would become the teacher of others, before you try to correct a flaw in your brother’s thinking or behavior, you have to start by soberly evaluating yourself, to make sure you don’t have an even bigger problem in your thinking or behavior. This requires humility, and a willingness to honestly hold yourself up to the mirror of God’s Law and God’s teaching, especially His teaching about being merciful as your Father in heaven is merciful, and, if you find a glaring discrepancy, to approach it with humility, and repentance, and to accept God’s correction.

These are Jesus’ instructions for those who live in His Father’s house. But the ability to do all this, and the motivation to carry it out, flows from the Gospel itself. Because, again, God is not teaching us about mercy so that we can earn a place in heaven by doing it correctly. God is teaching us about mercy, because He first showed such great mercy toward us in sending His Son to pay for our sins by His death on the cross, and in seeking us out with His Gospel, promising free forgiveness to all who believe. Now, as forgiven members of Christ’s body, as beloved children in our Father’s house, let us seek to become more and more like our merciful God, in everything we think, and say, and do. Amen.

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