Mercy

One of the main characteristics of God is mercy. God is full of mercy (Psalm 145:8). His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). That’s a good thing, because we all need mercy.

Mercy is defined as kindness or good will toward the miserable and afflicted, including a desire to help them.

The New Testament commands us to put on bowels of mercies (Colossians 3:12). This means we should have strong merciful feelings toward others, especially toward other Christians.

Mercy is shown to people who have problems. They have problems and deserve to face harsh consequences. But mercy releases them from those consequences and helps them get out of their problems. Mercy is often contrary to the way of the world.

The Bible is full of revelations of God’s mercy, from the beginning to the end. After the fall, Adam and Eve received mercy from God, even though they messed up so badly. God is merciful to all of us. He saved us with his mercy when we were dead in sin (Titus 3:4; Ephesians 2:4).

Jesus was merciful (Matthew 9:36). He had compassion on people (Matthew 14:14). He knew that people were wicked all around him, but he was merciful to them anyway. He showed mercy to the poor, to the sick, to sinners, to prostitutes, and to tax collectors. He showed mercy to his enemies when they were killing him.

People are often not as merciful as they should be, and the Bible shows us this too.

David once committed adultery with a woman and then killed her husband. The prophet Nathan came and told him a story about a rich man who had many sheep and a poor man who had one little sheep that he loved as a member of his own family. The rich man stole the poor man’s sheep, killed it, and ate it.

David was so incensed at Nathan’s story that he shouted out that that man must die!

Then the prophet looked at him and said, “You are the man! You committed adultery and killed the woman’s husband!”

David suddenly panicked and wanted mercy. David found it hard to give mercy to others, but easy to receive mercy for himself. He didn’t want to give mercy to another person for stealing and killing a sheep, but he wanted mercy for himself for committing adultery and murdering.

Jonah is another example of someone who wanted mercy from God but didn’t want to give mercy to others. Jonah was disobedient to God, ran away from him, and was swallowed up by a whale. He was dying in the middle of the whale, and he cried out to God for mercy. God gave him mercy and the whale vomited Jonah out on the shore.

After this Jonah hoped that God would destroy the city of Nineveh, which had a population of over 100,000 people. Jonah knew how bad these people were. He hated them and wanted them all dead because they disobeyed God. But the Ninevites repented and God didn’t kill them. Jonah got mad at God for showing mercy toward all these people, and he started sulking and shouting at God.

Jonah was desperate for mercy for himself when he was in trouble, but he didn’t want to give mercy to others when they were in trouble.

Jonah was a prophet. He found it hard to give mercy.

David was a king after God’s own heart, yet he found it hard to give mercy.

Why is it so easy to receive mercy for ourselves but so hard to give mercy to others?

People are selfish. They look at things from their own perspective. They minimize their own sins and maximize the sins of others. They believe that they deserve a break while others need to pay for their wrongs. They feel it’s not fair for others to receive mercy, ignoring the fact that they received mercy when they didn’t deserve it.

The opposite of mercy is judgment. It’s easy to judge others because we can quickly see their wrongs. One reason it’s so easy to see the wrongs of others is because their wrongs cause us pain. We therefore think people with problems deserve their problems. This hinders us from showing mercy to them.

Jesus said we should not judge others. God is the judge. Our job is to show mercy.

God is merciful, and Jesus said that we should be as merciful as God (Luke 6:35-36). That’s a high standard of mercy. We can be this merciful because the Holy Spirit is inside us.

Jesus said that the merciful are blessed because they will obtain mercy (Matthew 5:7).

We should be merciful to the poor. We should help them. We need to show mercy to the sick and suffering. We must be merciful to those who need truth and are enslaved by lies. We should show mercy to our enemies.

It’s easier to show mercy to others when we see how merciful God has been to us. No one has treated us as badly as we have treated God. We basically killed Jesus on the cross because of our sins. If God has given this much mercy to us in spite of the depths of our own depravity, then we can extend mercy to others. Our ability to give mercy to others is a reflection of how much we understand the mercy we have received from God.

If we are merciful, then our souls will be blessed. If we are not merciful, our flesh will be troubled (Proverbs 11:17). Sin will increase in us, and we might become sick.

Judgment will be merciless to the ones not showing mercy (James 2:13). If we want to receive mercy, we need to show mercy to others.

Mercy triumphs over judgment (James 2:13). Mercy causes judgment to cease. This means that mercy is stronger than judgment.

Mercy is not at the expense of truth. Truth is paramount, and there can be no real mercy when there is no adherence to truth. However, truth is merciful, and if we lack mercy it shows we lack truth.

Mercy and truth are not opposite. They go hand in hand. In Jesus, there is a perfect balance of mercy and truth (Psalm 85:10). May the quality of mercy increase in our lives by the Holy Spirit.