Mercy Not Sacrifice

"For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings." (Hosea 6:6)

What is more pleasing to God? A ritual between you and him? Or showing kindness and gentleness (Mercy) to our fellow man?

Which does God prefer? That we strive to know and understand Him, or being faithful to an obligatory ceremony?

God is more, “pleased with acts of benevolence and kindness than with a mere external compliance with the duties of religion.” (Albert Barnes)

“God prefers an act of mercy, shown to the necessitous, to any act of religious worship to which the person might be called at that time. Both are good; but the former is the greater good, and should be done in preference to the other” (Adam Clarke).

When the Pharisees inquired as to why Jesus sat and ate with the publicans and sinners He said, “They that be whole need not a physician, but they that are sick….I will have mercy, and not sacrifice: for I am not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance” (Matthew 9:12-13).

We are to love God and love our neighbor as our self (Matthew 22:37-39). That love for others is made manifest in the mercy, kindness and gentleness we show them. This is the sacrifice that God prefers. This is the sacrifice that honors God most. This sacrifice reaches out beyond self to the edification and comfort of others in the name of God.

Bill Hitchcock