Mercy

We are called to be merciful. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7). Those who are merciful will receive mercy from God, both in this life and in the coming age.

“Judgement will be merciless to the one who doesn’t show mercy” (James 2:13). If we don’t show mercy to others, we will not receive mercy from God. Mercy is vitally important to our Christian lives.

We need to understand what mercy is. 

First of all, mercy means not giving other people the judgment they deserve. People sin, and they often deserve judgment. But when we are merciful we do not criticize or judge them harshly, remembering that we ourselves have also sinned. God is merciful to us which means that he does not punish us for our sins.

But there’s more to it than this. Mercy is more than withholding judgment. Throughout the New Testament, mercy refers to showing kindness to someone who is in need. Jesus showed mercy to sick people by healing them (Matt. 9:27, 15:22, 17:15). We show mercy to others when we show kindness to them when they have a need.

Pity is a word that is connected to mercy. In our time, pity has gotten a bad connotation, and people often say, “I don’t need your pity!” as if pity is a bad thing. But in the Bible, pity is a good thing, and God wants us to show pity to others. Pity is an important aspect of mercy. Pity means seeing the need of someone and feeling compassion for them.

The story of the Good Samaritan teaches us about mercy (Luke 10:25-37). A man was was beaten and left on the side of the road. Religious people passed by him and didn’t do anything to help him. But a Samaritan passed by and helped him. He showed him mercy, healing his wounds and taking care of him. 

Jesus told this parable for two reasons. First, he was showing us how to love others. We love them by showing them mercy. Second, he was showing us who our neighbor is. Our neighbor is the person who is next to us in our daily life, the person that we come into close proximity to. It could be someone we pass on the sidewalk, someone at the store, or someone we have a brief interaction with. These people are our neighbors, and we need to show them mercy.

There are 5 parts of mercy that we see in the story of the Good Samaritan. 

1. The Good Samaritan inconvenienced himself to help someone else. He was on a journey, but he stopped to help someone. To show mercy, we may have to go out of our way and be inconvenienced.

2. The Good Samaritan saw the distress of someone. To show mercy to someone, we must first notice him or her and see that they have a need.

3. The Good Samaritan responded internally to the person’s need with a heart of compassion. Mercy involves feelings of compassion and sympathy towards others.

4. The Good Samaritan did practical action to help the person. He bound up the man’s wounds, took him to a hotel, paid for his room, and paid for his care. To show mercy to others, we have to take practical action to help them.

5. The Good Samaritan helped his enemy. The Jews looked down on Samaritans and had no interactions with them. But the Good Samaritan helped the Jewish man anyway. God calls us to extend mercy even to those who hate us or hurt us, just as he did to us.

We need to show mercy to others. We need to help them. We should recognize their needs and sympathize with them. We especially need to show mercy to our brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

It is interesting that the religious people in the story of the Good Samaritan did not show mercy. They were haughty. They ignored the person with the problem. Sometimes religion gets in the way of mercy. The Bible says that God wants mercy and not sacrifice (Matt. 9:13). God does not want us to be religious, but he wants us to be like him, and he is merciful.
Do we always need to show mercy to everyone?

Sometimes children sin, and instead of showing mercy to them, the parents punish them. Is this wrong? Jesus called the Pharisees snakes and vipers whose hearts were full of evil. Was this merciful? Rather than showing mercy to a lazy employee, a boss may fire him instead. Is this wrong?

Mercy must be balanced. We don’t need to show mercy to everyone at everytime. Sometimes parents need to punish children. God does send people into hell. Christians need to reject false teachers.

In Jesus, mercy and truth have met together. Righteousness and peace have kissed each other (Psalm 85:10). The accurate balance between mercy and truth can only be found in Jesus Christ. We need to be led by the Holy Spirit. As we are led by the Spirit, we will know how to balance mercy with truth.

“Be merciful as your Heavenly Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). This is a high standard for mercy that is beyond our own human ability. True mercy does not come from our flesh. Our flesh is not merciful, but it wants to take revenge. True mercy is supernatural and comes from God. The Holy Spirit helps us to be merciful.

We are merciful when we understand how God has been merciful to us. Through Jesus, God took away all of our sins. He did not punish us, but he gave us eternal life. 

Receiving mercy from God changes us. It causes us to be born again. It gives us a soft heart. If we receive God’s mercy, then we are saved. God’s mercy will mark us and change us. Merciful Christians are those who know how merciful God has been to them.

Showing mercy to others is therefore a sign that we ourselves have received mercy from God. It is a sign that we are God’s children. It is proof of our salvation. If we are merciless, then it might be questioned as to whether we have actually had a revelation of God’s mercy to us. This is why the merciful will receive mercy.