Real Mercy Vs. "Mortal Kombat" Mercy

In the third installment of Mortal Kombat, you could show "Mercy" to your opponent.  However, this was really just a way for you to beat them up again so that you could murder them in an even more horrific way using a "Fatality" called an "Animality."  In the same manner, many people in church pretend to forgive others, but hold on to their bitterness and hatred until they can take vengeance in an even more horrific way than they had originally planned.  For example, a spouse may outwardly forgive their significant other for verbally lashing out at them in the past, but secretly resent them to the point where they act out by sleeping around behind their back.  In other words, they withhold a verbal "Fatality" by refusing to retaliate with verbal insults only to perform a passive-aggressive "Animality" by cheating, hurting their spouse in an even more horrific way than cutting words would have.  

In our battle to protect Christ-centered marriages, we must make sure that we are not guilty of sin ourselves.  This includes the sin of unforgiveness.  In Matthew 18:23-35, Jesus Christ talks about a servant who is forgiven a monumental debt by a king, only to turn around and throw a fellow servant in jail for owing him a tiny sum of money.  The king is so furious when he finds out that he reacts like this:

Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers, until he should pay all his debt.  So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart. (Matthew 18: 32-35)

How exactly can a Christian advance God's kingdom from jail?  Not very effectively.  Even skilled spiritual archers would have difficulty shooting an enemy who has laid siege to the church when they themselves are aiming their arrows from the bowels of an embittered soul's dungeon.  Yet, that is what we are doing when we are so full of hatred that God the Father casts us into the jail of bitterness to be tormented.  Rest assured, God the Father, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit know the difference between real forgiveness and mercy (which leads to spiritual growth and freedom of the believer, and sometimes leads an unsaved person to repentance) and fake, "Mortal Kombat" mercy which, subconsciously or consciously, is just a way to bide time for a more animalistic way to retaliate against someone (saved or not) who has offended us. 

We need to understand something very important: everyone who refuses to completely and unconditionally surrender to Jesus Christ WILL burn in the Lake of Fire forever!  In order to reach them through protecting Christ-centered marriages, we need to have as much freedom and mobility as possible!  The fight to protect marriage is a spiritual WAR, and we can't be effective soldiers for Christ if we are thrown into the spiritual brig for disobeying a direct order to forgive our enemies.  So in order for us to be restored to the front lines so that we can give the gospel to as many lost and dying souls as possible, we must repent of unforgiveness (no matter how serious the crime against us is) IMMEDIATELY.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 6:23).