“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”
What does it mean to be merciful? Why should we be merciful? How can we extend mercy to others? Have you ever been in a situation where you could either give mercy or revenge? Obviously, revenge is never a clever idea, because the Bible says, “vengeance is the Lords” not ours.
The Oxford Dictionary says mercy means, “compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one’s power to punish or harm.”
Although these definitions are long it is important to understand what mercy is. The Revell Concise Bible Dictionary states, “Mercy, merciful “A compassionate response that moves a person to one who is helpless and in need.” “In the OT 1) a feeling of compassion, normally translates as ‘love’, 2) the active help, motivated by love, that is offered to a person in need, often rendered ‘to be gracious or ‘to show mercy.’ “The NT 3) Gk, eleos, originally the deep emotion of concern aroused by suffering, which in the NT implies the giving of active help. The biblical use of eleos, portrays God as one who is deeply moved by human suffering and who has chosen to come to our aid despite the sin that makes us his enemies.”
So, with these definition’s the first thing we’re seeing is, mercy is an action in motion to meet someone else’s need. The need for mercy may be hands on physical help or a verbal response of love and concern. Mercy goes outside of yourself towards another. When we reach out to help another it is for their betterment. Mercy wants to help another. The motivation is to ease the suffering.
The second thing we’re seeing about mercy is, sometimes it also an act of forgiveness. When someone offends, hurts or despitefully uses us our natural man wants to defend ourselves or get even. But mercy extends forgiveness to the person. When we are willing to forgive it is a process we go through. Saying I forgive you can be difficult when it is a traumatic event, but the forgiveness releases you from the event your mind wants to hold onto.
Forgiveness is a choice and God will walk through the process with you. Being merciful doesn’t mean you stay in harm’s way, but it does mean your releasing yourself from the hurt and pain through forgiveness. We choose to forgive, process the hurt and let God bring in the healing for it.
The third thing we could learn about mercy is God is merciful. He extends help to those who are in need. He is “gracious, longsuffering and abounding in goodness and truth.” God loves us so much sent His only begotten son Jesus to die for our sins and so his sacrifice would purchase redemption for us. Even though we deserved the penalty for our sin, His mercy was extended to us through Christ Jesus. His forgiveness of our sins is because of His mercy on mankind. His compassion, longsuffering and goodness can be seen in His love towards us.
Therefore, mercy is a powerful action of love.