“Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Anyone who does not love does not know God, because God is love. 9 In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him. 10 In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins. 11 Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. 12 No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us.”
1 John 4:7-12
Love is central to the nature of God. “God is love.” How did God prove His love? By sending Jesus. Anyone who questions the love and goodness of God simply does not appreciate the sacrifice of Jesus. The more we meditate on the incarnation (Philippians 2:1-11) and the atonement (Rom. 3:21-26), the more we will be grateful for the mercy of God toward us and thereby experience more of His overflowing love.
“That according to the riches of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in your inner being, 17 so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith—that you, being rooted and grounded in love, 18 may have strength to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, 19 and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Ephesians 3:16-19
The mercy of God is His compassion and love toward us, primarily expressed in Christ but also in His manifold kindness and generosity to us in other ways as well. This was God’s self-revelation to Moses on Mount Sinai:
“The Lord descended in the cloud and stood with him there, and proclaimed the name of the Lord. 6 The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin.”
Exodus 34:5-7
God’s mercy and grace are often presented as a pair. Another common pairing is God’s love and faithfulness. Mercy and grace illustrate the need we all have of forgiveness for our sins to even begin to interact with the holy God of heaven. Love and faithfulness are the primary expressions of what it looks like to have a relationship with the covenant God of Israel.
As we shift from the roots of faith now into the fruit of faith we encounter this promise of blessing:
“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”
Matthew 5:7
Who are the ones who will receive mercy from the Lord? Those who are merciful themselves. Does this mean we earn our salvation by loving and serving others? Of course not. Salvation is the free gift of God’s infinite mercy and grace to undeserving sinners. But love and mercy toward the sinners around us is one of the most important signs of a person who has truly experienced the grace of Jesus.
This sign is so important that Jesus included it in the Lord’s Prayer and the verses immediately following it:
“Give us this day our daily bread,12 and forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.14 For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, 15 but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.”
Matthew 6:11-15
Those who have been forgiven according to the mercy of Jesus will naturally share that same mercy with those around them. Read Matthew 18 for Jesus’ memorable parable of the unforgiving servant.
The order in the beatitudes is, again, significant. There is a blessing for those who make peace between other people. And there is a final blessing for those who endure persecution and abuse from others who don’t understand or express mercy. Before you can make peace or endure harsh persecution, you must first experience the compassion and mercy of God and begin to demonstrate that kind of love for the people closest to you. Then, over time, you will be able (by the power of the Holy Spirit) to become a peacemaker and one who can love your enemies and endure difficult persecution from them.
Who needs mercy from you today? Remember: “Blessed are the merciful.”