"Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand." [Phil 4:5]
It is a great comfort to us that God is lenient, that God is gracious. To be gracious is to be “favorable; kind…benevolent…disposed to forgive offenses and impart unmerited blessings.” [Webster] Truly, God’s grace is one of His most desirable qualities, one that draws us closer and does not push us further. To expand upon the definition of gracious, let us remember too the definition of favorable and benevolent. Favorable is defined as, “palliative; tender; averse to censure,” which means, “mitigating; alleviating,” and, “averse to finding fault and condemning.” [Webster] That is, favorable is to be so inclined toward another, that you are averse to condemning them, willing rather to alleviate their pain, their discomfort, their condemnation, their guilt, etc. To be favorable is to be tender toward another: such a tenderness that warmly incites one to look past faults and offer kindness instead. And benevolent means, “having a disposition to do good.” [Webster] Let us sweetly meditate again, having understood more fully the word gracious, upon God’s word, which says,
“The LORD is gracious, and full of compassion; slow to anger, and of great mercy.” [Psa 145:8]
Our God, our Father, our Friend, is He that for Christ’s sake is disposed to do us good. His attitude and countenance toward us is inclined to be kind, tender, and to alleviate our guilts and hardships. The LORD says through the prophet, “yea, I will rejoice over them to do them good.” [Jer 32:41] Truly as the Psalmist says, God’s “lovingkindness is better than life.” [Psa 63:3] And in our daily walk this is most evident, for our Lord is exceedingly gracious and lenient toward us. As David says,
“Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy right hand hath holden me up, and thy meekness hath made me great. Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.” [Psa 18:35-36]
Because of Jesus’ meekness, we are made great; because He is lenient toward our offences, passing over every transgression, (for He “pardoneth iniquity, and passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage.” [Mic 7:18]), we can grow. Because our Lord does not swiftly punish us, but tenderly guides us, being longsuffering and patient with us, we can grow and increase. Again, for that He “hast enlarged [our] steps under [us], [so] that [our] feet [do] not slip,” we can walk and live, we can grow up and become stronger. In order to appreciate this more deeply, let us think upon two allegories.
One, imagine a sapling of a tree which has just sprouted up. It grows up small and has but a stalk and no branches, but a leaf or two. Now let us imagine also there is a man there who desires to tend to this plant and make it grow. What if the man were to suppose, “well, pruning is good, let me now prune this plant and afford it some better growth.”? My brother, would the plant grow? Or would it not rather be destroyed? Let us see that the plant, being so young, and only having one very slender trunk, and not yet formed any branches, would die if it were pruned, for the whole lot of the plant would be cut off. But the man may say, “but, behold, the sapling grows in the wrong direction and I wish to train it elsewhere!” Ah, yes, it may grow undesirably now, but to prune such a tender and young plant would kill it all together; it would be more prudent to wait. Let us see the interpretation of this. The Lord Jesus affords us space to grow, even if it be in the wrong direction for a time, in order that He might not destroy us. Make no mistake, the pruning and training shall come, but He is quite gentle with us and patient, and will not prune us unto our destruction but our growth. For Jesus says, “every branch that beareth fruit, [my Father] prunes, that it may bring forth more fruit.” [Jn 15:2]
Two, imagine if the police in a city were so strict that anybody going even one mile-per-hour over the speed limit were ticketed. Why my dear brother, no man would drive there! It is too harsh a ruling, too strict a guideline. The fleshy foot of our body can not steady itself so perfectly. And from this we see that Jesus does not quickly punish nor correct us. He enlarges the steps under our feet so that we do not stumble; He gives us grace upon grace, chance upon chance, allowing us to practice righteousness without fear. For it is written that one reason The LORD sent Jesus was,
“That He would grant unto us, that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve Him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before Him, all the days of our life.” [Lk 1:74-75]
We can serve our Master without fear. We can serve Him without fear that He shall prune us to the earth, and without fear that at the very least infraction He shall smite us. No, but our Lord is gracious and full of compassion, patient and longsuffering, even as Jesus says of the woman at Thyatira, certainly too of us, “I gave her space to repent.” [Rev 2:21]
Now, let us focus upon some application, remembering again from Philippians what is written.
“Let your moderation be known unto all men. The Lord is at hand.” [Phil 4:5]
The word “moderation” means to be gentle, mild, fair, reasonable. It is a word that signifies not being overly strict, but being mild and reasonable with others. This is how The Lord Jesus is with us, and it is how we are to be with others. Let us not be finger-pointers and fault-finders. For it is written in Isaiah regarding the true fast, among other things,
“…If thou take away from the midst of thee the yoke, the putting forth of the finger…then shall thy light rise in obscurity…and The LORD shall…satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones…” [Isa 58:9, 10 ,11]
It is not the only thing, but one of the points The LORD says is necessary, and more desirable to Him that mere ritualistic fasting or spirituality, is that a man takes away the yoke and the putting forth of the finger. That is, first, that a man, as Jesus says He does, does lot lay heavy burdens and yokes upon those around Him, but is reasonable and gentle. For Jesus says, “take my yoke upon you…for my yoke is well-fitting/manageable, and my burden is light.” [Mt 11:29, 30] And second, that a man does not point his finger at others in constant and frequent accusation. As Jesus said, “judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged…” [Mt 7:1-2] And, “thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.” [Mt 7:5]
So then, let us strive by God’s grace to be more lenient; let us take comfort and joy in our Lord’s reasonableness and grace, and so extend the same to others.