In Matthew 9:13 there is a simple and yet profound statement. As Jesus was being criticized for His association with “tax collectors and sinners” (9:11), He gives this admonition—“But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance” (NKJV). As He quotes an Old Testament teaching from Hosea 6:6 it is interesting what He instructs the Pharisees to do. He assigns them to learn the meaning of Hosea’s statement. The statement itself is easy enough to understand: God wants people to be merciful to others more than He wants us to offer some great sacrifice. Yet Jesus seems to suggest to them that although they might understand the words, they had not truly learned the principle. By criticizing His association with “sinners” they were failing to see the importance of the mercy He demonstrated in trying to teach sinners. He tells them to “go and learn.”

     There are many things in the Christian life that have a similar application. We may understand that God wants us to be longsuffering and kind (I Corinthians 13:4), or that His word can work in us if we will study (I Thessalonians 2:13; II Timothy 3:16,17). Yet, we may not yet have learned how to act with patience and kindness or we may not let God’s word work within us. We may understand that God is with us from day to day (Hebrews 13:5) and that peace of mind is offered to us when we go to God in prayer (Philippians 4:6,7). Yet, we may not yet have learned to trust Him through times of difficulty appealing to Him that we might have this peace. In each of these cases, we likes Jesus’ critics need to “go and learn what this means.”

     The important thing for us all to remember is that we must always try to both understand what God has said and “learn” how to apply it in our lives. It is easy for us to get discouraged when we see our lives fall short of what the Lord teaches. However, in Christ Satan doesn’t win when we fall short but when we surrender. Paul shows us that even though he understood the Lord’s care in his life he had to “learn” to be content. In Philippians 4:12 he declares—“I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need” Just before this Paul stated—“I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content” (vs. 11). Our task is just the same. May each of us work to better understand what God has said and diligently come to know the Scriptures. Yet, at the same time may we each take it a step further by “learning” what these things mean in our own lives.