"Blessed Are the Merciful,..."

Continuing our study of the teachings and commands of Jesus, as a foundation for our lives, we look at the next Beattitude in Matthew 5.

Matthew 5:7 NIV

[7]  Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.

What is mercy? 

Webster's dictionary defines it as "compassion, leniency, or restraint shown especially to an offender or to one subject to the power of another." Or "2. Compassionate treatment of those in distress."

My reference Bible defines it as, "a form of love, especially directed toward the needy or unworthy."

Okay, cutting through such formal definitions, mercy is showing love to anyone regardless of if we think they deserve it or not.

Simplify it even more, it is being nice to someone no matter what happens. 

God shows us mercy everyday even though we don't deserve it and here Jesus is saying to do the same thing to those we encounter in life. Mercy receives mercy. "Give and it will be given unto you."

Luke 6:38 NIV

[38] Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Look at God's promise to us:

Lamentations 3:22-23 KJV

[22] It is of the LORD's mercies that we are not consumed, Because his compassions fail not. [23] They are new every morning: Great is thy faithfulness.

If He does this for us each day, how could we not do it for those around us? Give mercy to everyone, everyday, no matter what. This shows the love of God that is "poured out into our hearts by the Holy Spirit," and that is in us by the Holy Spirit.

Do you remember the movie "Roadhouse" with Patrick Swayze? Mercy is like the one line he said while training his employees at the bar. "If someone does this or that...BE NICE. If they did this or that, or said this or that...BE NICE." So cool. That is exactly what mercy is. I love that line in that movie.

So, mercy is similar to grace, giving people what they don't deserve or are unworthy of. Be nice, be kind, be compassionate....love everyone, no matter who they are or what they've done or not done, whether we think they deserve it or not. Why? Because God gives us this exact mercy every day too.

Let's look at scriptures:

Deuteronomy 4:31 NIV

[31] For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Psalms 86:5 NIV

[5] You, Lord, are forgiving and good, abounding in love to all who call to you.

Job 33:14-30 NIV

[14] For God does speak—now one way, now another— though no one perceives it. [15] In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, [16] he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, [17] to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, [18] to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword. [19] “Or someone may be chastened on a bed of pain with constant distress in their bones, [20] so that their body finds food repulsive and their soul loathes the choicest meal. [21] Their flesh wastes away to nothing, and their bones, once hidden, now stick out. [22] They draw near to the pit, and their life to the messengers of death. [23] Yet if there is an angel at their side, a messenger, one out of a thousand, sent to tell them how to be upright, [24] and he is gracious to that person and says to God, ‘Spare them from going down to the pit; I have found a ransom for them— [25] let their flesh be renewed like a child’s; let them be restored as in the days of their youth’— [26] then that person can pray to God and find favor with him, they will see God’s face and shout for joy; he will restore them to full well-being. [27] And they will go to others and say, ‘I have sinned, I have perverted what is right, but I did not get what I deserved. [28] God has delivered me from going down to the pit, and I shall live to enjoy the light of life.’ [29] “God does all these things to a person— twice, even three times— [30] to turn them back from the pit, that the light of life may shine on them.

Job 37:23 NIV

[23] The Almighty is beyond our reach and exalted in power; in his justice and great righteousness, he does not oppress.

Psalms 36:5-6 NIV

[5] Your love, Lord, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. [6] Your righteousness is like the highest mountains, your justice like the great deep. You, Lord, preserve both people and animals.

Luke 1:50 NIV

[50] His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation.

Luke 6:36 NIV

[36] Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Titus 3:4-7 NIV

[4] But when the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, [5] he saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit, [6] whom he poured out on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior, [7] so that, having been justified by his grace, we might become heirs having the hope of eternal life. 

We see here that since God has shown and shows His great mercy to us, we should be merciful too, to all people. So great.

Love you all dear readers,

Jeffrey Post