Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 5:23-26

So if when you are offering your gift at the altar you there remember that your brother has any [grievance] against you, Leave your gift at the altar and go. First make peace with your brother, and then come back and present your gift. Come to terms quickly with your accuser while you are on the way traveling with him, lest your accuser hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the guard, and you be put in prison. Truly I say to you, you will not be released until you have paid the last fraction of a penny. Matthew 5:23-26

Jesus tells us that our Father desires mercy from us over our sacrifices. So what Jesus is telling us here in His Sermon on the Mount is to have mercy on others before we sacrifice, or be merciful before we make an offering. 

And if you had only known what this saying means, I desire mercy [readiness to help, to spare, to forgive] rather than sacrifice and sacrificial victims, you would not have condemned the guiltless. Matthew 12:7

For if you forgive people their trespasses [their reckless and willful sins, leaving them, letting them go, and giving up resentment], your heavenly Father will also forgive you. Matthew 6:14

Then Peter came up to Him and said, Lord, how many times may my brother sin against me and I forgive him and let it go? [As many as] up to seven times? Jesus answered him, I tell you, not up to seven times, but seventy times seven! Matthew 18:21-22

[Now having received the Holy Spirit, and being led and directed by Him] if you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you retain the sins of anyone, they are retained. John 20:23

The greatest gift or offering that we can give our Father is to forgive others. We have been shown great Mercy, so in turn we have been empowered with the Holy Spirit to give Mercy. Tithes and offerings are fine, but they pale in comparison to the great gift of forgiving. We are blessed because we are empowered with the very Spirit of God Himself to be the peace makers.

Blessed and happy and to be envied are those whose iniquities are forgiven and whose sins are covered up and completely buried. Romans 4:7

Above all things have intense and unfailing love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins [forgives and disregards the offenses of others]. 1 Peter 4:8

We are filled with the very Love of Jesus and we are so blessed because His Love for us has covered up all of our sins, past, present, and future. But Jesus’ Love is not just for us, it flows from us as a River of Living Water as we are used to forgive others. It is the beautiful and precious circle of our Abundant Life.

I have made Your Name known to them and revealed Your character and Your very Self, and I will continue to make [You] known, that the love which You have bestowed upon Me may be in them [felt in their hearts] and that I [Myself] may be in them. John 17:26