Pious mercy is a symptom of sin.

My great thesis for this week is:
Pious mercy is a symptom of sin.

I know, it sounds a bit off, right? Pious is good. Mercy is good. Since when do two positives make a negative?

Not in the math books, perhaps. But in real life it does in the case of pious mercy.


I posit that celerity in granting pious mercy is frequently indicative of hidden sin in the life of the grantor.

They "forgive" quickly because they do not wish to be too closely scrutinized themselves. Swept neatly under the rug. Or so they wish. It is the old 'judge not, that you be not judged' crowd.

Most folks won't venture to pray as David did in Psalm 59:5 when he implores God, "Do not be gracious to any who are treacherous in iniquity."

Why not? Is it mean to want the wicked to fail? Our cultural answer is yes, that is mean. The scriptural answer is no, that is righteous.

The remarkable thing is that there are scriptural promises of the righteous being able to laugh at the downfall of the wicked. That must take tremendous depth of maturity. Or else purity.