THE BEATITUDES – PART 6
“Blessed are the merciful, for they
will be shown mercy.”
Jesus has just told them about being humble, repentant, and gentle of nature and then how to be filled with godliness. He now comes to the point of what it means to take on the nature of godliness. He wants them to understand that having compassion and mercy towards others is very important to their following Him.
The Greek word for mercy is ělěěõ [el-eh-eh-o], and it means to have tender compassion towards others, which is given to you by divine grace. For it is impossible to see others as God sees them without having experienced God’s compassion and mercy yourself. This is part of God’s goodness to humankind.
In fact, James is quite blunt as he writes: “… because judgement without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgement!” (James 2:13 NIV). This indicates that we should be striving to show mercy towards others, no matter what the circumstances, for in this we shall be reflecting the very nature of Christ, for if we do not show mercy, we could well be in trouble at the end of days.
Oh, but this is very hard, you say. Yes, you are correct; showing unwavering mercy is not a natural human tendency. This is not something we can just gloss over. You want to be happy and content, in other words blessed, then begin in all earnestness to seek wisdom from the Holy Spirit on how to make this part of your character. We may say that to show mercy requires us to have a certain level of wealth. The truth is that we have the real wealth; that being the gospel message. But more than that, even in your little way of having pity and showing mercy, no matter what form that takes, God sees your willing heart, and that will be credited to you.
Peter, speaking to Cornelius the centurion, tells him about Jesus and that by the power of the Holy Spirit, Jesus went around healing people, amongst doing other things. It is this goodness and kindness, both a Fruit of the Spirit, that Jesus is wanting us to show to the world.
Join with me
as we embark on a process of judging less and less and showing mercy
more and more.