What the Bible says about Beatitudes: Merciful
(From Forerunner Commentary)

Proverbs 21:13 Jesus vividly captures the essence of this valuable principle in concluding the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant: "So My heavenly Father also will do to you if each of you, from his heart, does not forgive his brother his trespasses" (Matthew 18:35). Could this be a major reason why we are not as blessed as we desire to be? John W. Ritenbaugh The Beatitudes, Part 5: Blessed Are the Merciful Related Topics: Beatitudes: Merciful | Forgiving Attitude | Forgiving Others | Mercy | Parable of the Unforgiving Servant

Matthew 5:7 We must not be misled into believing that, because Jesus says that the merciful will obtain mercy, this somehow proves salvation by works. Nothing anywhere in the Bible supports this conclusion. Jesus does not describe the foundation of a sinner's hope of receiving God's mercy but traces the spiritual features of His people. John W. Ritenbaugh The Beatitudes, Part 5: Blessed Are the Merciful Related Topics: Beatitudes, The | Beatitudes: Merciful | Mercy | Salvation By Works

Matthew 5:7 Mercy begins with the love of God. He is always the source of righteous character and righteous deeds. Without God's love as the source of those things and our guide, our "merciful" good works (as we see them) are suspect. If they do not have God as the source, we cannot trust them to be truly good. Jesus points out the Pharisees as the opposite of what He wants. They did their good works for selfish reasons, as both Matthew 6 and Matthew 23 show. They did their works to be seen by others, that is, hypocritically. They did not do them primarily to help the needy. They did them so others would say, "Wow, what a righteous person that guy is." Jesus calls them what they were—hypocrites. Conversely, the mercies of God are untainted by this idea of "what can doing this get me," because the love of God is the agape love. It is selfless, a divine sacrificial love that gives, not for something in return but because it is good and right to do so. The structure of this beatitude implies a reciprocal relationship between the merciful God and the converted Christian. It is a covenant relationship like the agreement between a lord and a vassal, bound by oaths and promises. Here, the agreement is that God has given mercy, which obliges the Christian to show mercy to others, and God then will continue to extend mercy. Both God and the Christian fulfill their roles, not to get something like salvation. Both do their parts out of love because it is good. It is what pleases God and helps other people. While the word is not present in Jesus' beatitude, the structure of this idea harkens to a pervasive Old Testament concept found in the Hebrew word hesed, which means "covenant loyalty." It can also connote "loyal or steadfast love." It is frequently translated in the Old Testament as "favor," "lovingkindness," "kindness," "goodness," or "mercy." Because we have made a covenant with God to be molded into His image, we have vowed through our baptism to uphold this idea of hesed. Our baptism is a sign of our covenant with God. By it, we have promised to keep the New Covenant. In this beatitude, Jesus reminds us that to remain loyal to Him, our covenantal agreement requires us to show mercy just as God has shown mercy to us. Richard T. Ritenbaugh The Merciful Related Topics: Beatitudes: Merciful | Chesedh | Covenantal Relationship with God | God's Lovingkindness | Goodness | Hesed | Hypocrisy | Kindness | Mercy

Luke 10:33-37 A parable is not a news report. However, in a real-life situation, a priest or a Levite might have widely varying feelings when confronted with such a situation. They might range from aversion and/or fear that a similar tragedy might happen to him if he remained in the area to sympathy and commiseration. Jesus does not explore this angle, but we can understand the possibility because we also are not unmoved by another's plight. We are not cold marble statues without feelings. Jesus does not mention what the priest and Levite specifically felt, but He clearly shows that mercy began with the Samaritan feeling compassion for the wounded man. Then, the Samaritan made a number of sacrifices to meet the miserable man's needs. How frequently are we moved to make some small sacrifice toward relieving another's misery, but never mercifully follow through? John W. Ritenbaugh The Beatitudes, Part 5: Blessed Are the Merciful Related Topics: Beatitudes, The | Beatitudes: Merciful | Compassion | Feelings | Loose from Burdens | Mercy | Parable | Parable of the Good Samaritan

 

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