“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” (Matthew 5:7)
Last week we looked at the concept of mercy. Mercy flows from love and helps those who cannot help themselves. With God mercy is always sovereign since any obligation or merit means that it is justice. Mercy always has the true good of the individual being helped in mind and so the primary concern will always be spiritual. True mercy flows from love which has God as its only source. There is a very real sense, then, that all true mercy flows from God through His people. Mercy, as it flows from love and the character of God, is not based on any benefit or good from the person being helped. All true mercy flows from and is moved by the character of God who is sovereign.
Those without true mercy are set out as evil in Scripture. They are “without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, [and] unmerciful” (Rom 1:31). An unmerciful heart is a heart that does not know God and is being hardened. The person that is unmerciful is also seen as unloving and untrustworthy. This is another verse that shows how linked mercy is with love. In fact, without love there is no mercy and yet where there is true love there is mercy. Mercy is simply love reaching out to help those that cannot help themselves. So where there is no mercy, there is no love and yet without love there is no Christianity as we know from I Corinthians 13. True mercy in the spiritual realm is part of Christianity and without it there is no Christianity.
There is also the connection between showing mercy and a judgment of no mercy. “For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment” (James 2:13). This is not teaching that showing outward mercy earns the mercy of God or that the Gospel is by works to some and by grace to others. It is simply showing the connection between receiving mercy at judgment and showing mercy on earth. We can see that connection in Matthew 25 as well. There it is those who fed and clothed Christ who will receive mercy at judgment and those that did not feed and clothe Christ who will not receive mercy at the judgment. What happens to those who have no mercy? All men who do not receive His mercy and then follow the way of mercy are refusing His kindness that leads to repentance and are storing up wrath for the day of wrath (Rom 2:4-5). It is a hard heart and it will grow harder and harder as it despises and rejects mercy. On the surface both of these texts appear to have mercy being obtained by works. However, what is true is not always what appears as true on the surface.
One is blessed if he is merciful because showing true mercy presupposes that one has been shown mercy and is acting like His Father who is merciful. That mercy is being worked in and through the person as the fruit of the Spirit and the life of Christ. That means that texts like James 2:13 and Matthew 25 show that true mercy is necessary and that those who show true mercy are blessed of God and will receive mercy. But those texts are not teaching that the mercy of God is obtained by good works. Rather, good works and the demonstration of true mercy show that true mercy has already been shown to the person showing mercy. The texts simply show the connection but do not declare that the showing of mercy demonstrates that God will reward it by showing mercy.
How does the blessedness of being merciful fit with the Beatitudes that we have discussed previously? Showing mercy only comes from one who has been broken of self-righteousness (poor in spirit). This person mourns for the sin of others and can show mercy when insulted (meekness). This person has a hunger & thirst for righteousness. The beatitudes show that mercy is an issue of the heart and not just the behavior. If we see the connection that each beatitude is necessary to have the others, then we know that being broken from self-righteousness is necessary for true mercy. We must be broken of self to have and show true mercy. There is mercy toward physical issues and there is mercy toward the spiritual condition of others. The heart that is bound to self-righteousness cannot show true mercy, it will be contrived. True mercy brings others what they really need and that is God. People are dead in sin, self-love, and self-centeredness. It is true mercy to tell them of their spiritual state and of the Great Physician. However, be warned. It takes humility to receive mercy and those who are proud in the heart will hate you if you try to show them true, spiritual mercy. But true mercy will not be scared off when it is opposed.
There is a huge difference between outward acts of mercy and merciful shown from the heart. Acts of mercy can come from the strength of self-love. True mercy comes from the heart by the workings of God. Only one who has received true mercy from God can have true mercy since they alone recognize what it really is and the depths to which it goes (Col 3:10). Self-love finds hidden strength and has secret hiding places because of the desires of self for survival. Selfishness cannot always be seen as it feeds on the subtle poison of apparent generosity in always sacrificing for others. This self must be exposed by the light so that you can see it for what it is and learn to hate it. This flattering illusion of self must die. We must see that we really worship self. All of our mercies and kind acts can be nothing but the strength of pride and self. You must see all that you are in truth and realize the poison of your mercies and niceness. Your kindness has been poison as it has fed self. Your sacrifice for others, politeness, and kindness are nothing but self-love. It is the effort at appearance of these things that shows us our own hearts. We can try to appear convicted and even humble when we hear things like this, but the trying to appear that way is nothing but the appearance of self-love in the robe of religion. To show true mercy our self-centeredness must die.
When we show “mercy” for selfish reasons, we do them with a desire for honor and applause which means our hearts are not doing them out of love for God or a true desire for the good of others. The desire to be seen as nice and merciful is really a desire for self which opposes the glory of God. This means that we are not there to give people what is really best if we desire self above all. If our heart wants the person receiving the mercy (in name) to see how nice or merciful we are, then we are not doing our actions with true mercy which desires for others to see the glory of God. Some people do vicious acts to others in order to obtain honor from men. Others do outwardly kind acts in order to obtain honor from men. But both come from the same selfish heart. The vicious act does harm to the body, but the outwardly kind act can do much harm to the soul. Outward acts moved by selfish hearts that want to appear as nice, kind, and merciful might do more harm to the soul than vicious actions to the body. In reality, however, they might be vicious acts to the soul. Outward kindness and niceness can soothe people and make them feel better in their sin when what they really need is to have their sinful hearts opened by the Word. Mercy and niceness when only outward and done for the appearance are very dangerous lies about true mercy.
Do I want the appearance of mercy for the honor of others or the reality? The appearance can be relatively easy. The reality will only come in accordance with the dying of self. Self in the outward life is seen in people who want to appear great or to be honored by a position, clothes, house, car, job, money, and all sorts of things. All that they have is borrowed from things. So the person in religion borrows from the appearance of things as well. We want to be known as humble, knowledgeable, well-read, merciful, holy, kind, nice, and so on. But we would rather put on the clothing of these things than deal with our heart to do so. The appearance of these things might make us feel godly or righteous, but they are smoke in the nostrils of God. These things are not pure sacrifices coming from pure hearts. Spiritual pride is built on appearances, but in our pride we think they are real. When we can do something in our own strength, though we pray over it and think highly of it, it is just self and perhaps spiritual pride. Spiritual pride is not real in the spiritual realm, it is hypocrisy and self-deceit. If you have never fought this in your heart and have never been nauseated by it, then you can be sure that you still have it. You can be sure that there is an enemy in your heart that is deceiving you about yourself. Oh pray that God would open your eyes to that poisonous serpent that lies within your own heart and it is killing you. It must be seen in order to be killed.
Throughout history mankind has set up ministries of mercy and the like. They are termed “mercy” because they are said to relieve the needs of others. But many of these, instead of being true acts of mercy, are but shows of self-righteousness. True mercy and humility, while able to be distinguished, cannot be separated. A true heart that has true mercy will not do it for self-aggrandizement. How we try to make self appear merciful so we can think we are. We try to make self appear humble so we and others can think we are. But if we try to make others think we are that just shows that we are not. Would we rather appear to be merciful or to be merciful? The appearance does not cost much, but to strive for a broken heart from self, self-righteousness and pride so that we can have a merciful heart does hurt. It might also cost us all that we have and trust in, which is such a high cost for the proud in heart.
Pride and mercy are polar opposites while mercy and humility are necessary companions. How can I be proud of the mercy that I have received if the reason that I received mercy is because I could not help myself? How can I be proud that I received mercy because I was in utter and complete bondage to sin and was going to hell because I deserved it? If a person is proud of the mercy that s/he received, then that person does not understand mercy in the slightest. Humility is utterly necessary to show mercy, but also for receiving it. If I show mercy out of pride I am not doing it for the sake of the other, but for self. If I receive mercy as something which I deserve or which should have been shown to me, then from pride I have not received mercy at all. That is why the Gospel is only received and loved by the humbled. To the rest it is either nonsense or all about self.
God Loves... Himself 
Leave a comment