What does "blessed are the merciful" mean?

When the Lord Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful … ”, He means those who have experienced this mercy of God and who now, as disciples of their Lord and Master, follow His example. How often we read in the Gospels that He was moved with compassion! Full of mercy and full of heartfelt sympathy, He healed the sick, gave food to the hungry and gave back her son alive to a mourning mother. Yes, He was the true merciful Samaritan, who could say to the scribe who had come to try Him, at the end of His parable, “ … Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).

So here as well the word has a voice for us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus … ” (Philippians 2:5). In our case mercy involves the passing on of what we have learnt from the Lord Jesus, as to both the spiritual and material realms. If we are continually in the good of what the Lord has done for us we will have the right feelings for the sorrows, miseries and needs of others — not only our brother’s and sister’s in Christ — and we will also give practical proof that we are really merciful. The Lord wants to open our hearts and strengthen our hands in order that we may show His mercy.

It is a solemn lesson indeed which He gives in the parable in Matthew 18:23-35. The unmerciful servant who owed his king 10,000 talents1 had his fellow servant who owed him 100 pence,2 cast into prison. Let us ask ourselves whether we are conscious of the great salvation which we have received, and whether we act accordingly. If we open our hearts and eyes we will find many opportunities to show sympathy and mercy, e.g. visiting those who are sick, shopping for others, driving, etc.

When the Lord Jesus says “Blessed are the merciful … ”, He means those who have experienced this mercy of God and who now, as disciples of their Lord and Master, follow His example. How often we read in the Gospels that He was moved with compassion! Full of mercy and full of heartfelt sympathy, He healed the sick, gave food to the hungry and gave back her son alive to a mourning mother. Yes, He was the true merciful Samaritan, who could say to the scribe who had come to try Him, at the end of His parable, “ … Go, and do thou likewise” (Luke 10:37).

So here as well the word has a voice for us: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus … ” (Phil. 2:5). In our case mercy involves the passing on of what we have learnt from the Lord Jesus, as to both the spiritual and material realms. If we are continually in the good of what the Lord has done for us we will have the right feelings for the sorrows, miseries and needs of others — not only our brother's and sister's in Christ — and we will also give practical proof that we are really merciful. The Lord wants to open our hearts and strengthen our hands in order that we may show His mercy.

It is a solemn lesson indeed which He gives in the parable in Matthew 18:23-35. The unmerciful servant who owed his king 10,000 talents1 had his fellow servant who owed him 100 pence,2 cast into prison. Let us ask ourselves whether we are conscious of the great salvation which we have received, and whether we act accordingly. If we open our hearts and eyes we will find many opportunities to show sympathy and mercy, e.g. visiting those who are sick, shopping for others, driving, etc.

Mercy is the emotion of the soul in the face of misery or distress, and the aid resulting from this inner emotion. Mercy is not the same as grace. Grace is rather undeserved favour granted to someone who has become a guilty offender. In Scripture a clear difference is made between these two words. In the Old Testament God had said to Moses “ … The Lord, The Lord God, merciful and gracious … ”, and in the New Testament we read repeatedly expressions such as “ … Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father … ” (Exodus 34:6; 1 Timothy 1:2. See 2 Timothy 1:2; Hebrews 4:16; 2 John 3).

"Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy" (ver. 7). As righteousness is the key note of the first four, so grace is that which lies at the root of the latter three; and, therefore, the very first of them demonstrates not merely that they are righteous and that they feel what is due to God, but they appreciate the love of God, and maintain it in the midst of surrounding evil. Yea, there is something more blessed still: and what is that? "Blessed are the merciful." There is nothing on which God more takes His stand (as the active principle of His being in a world of sin) than His mercy. The only possibility of salvation to a single soul is that there is mercy in God; that He is rich in mercy; that there is no bound to His mercy; that there is nothing in man, if he only bows to His Son, which can hinder His constant flowing spring of mercy. "Blessed," then, "are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy." It is not only a question of the forgiveness of their sins, but of mercy in everything. It is a blessed thing to hail the smallest sign of mercy in the saints, to take the little, and look for much more. "Blessed are the merciful." They will find, not that there is not difficulty and trial, but that though they shall know the cost of it, they shall know the sweetness of it; they shall taste afresh what the mercy of God is towards their own souls, in the exercise of mercy towards others. This is the characteristic feature of the new class of blessing; just as poverty of spirit was the introduction to the first blessings, so mercy is to these.

And here learn also, as a believer, how to show mercy. Give not thy alms to the poor as thou wouldst throw a bone to a dog. With what grace Jesus bends over the poor man, and asks, as if He were his servant, "What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee?" Far from taking a place of manifest superiority, and causing the poor man to feel as if in a far distant place, He gave him to know and feel that He was dealing with him in love and grace, and drew the heart of the helpless one entirely to Himself. The Christian must not only be merciful — most merciful, always merciful — but he must learn to show mercy after the manner of his Lord and Master. The way of the world is to patronise, and to be esteemed as benefactors; and many will give for the sake of this honour. But not so those on whom the Lord lays His hand and pronounces blessed. "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy."

May the Lord lead thee, and all who read this paper, to abound more and more in this heavenly, this God-like, grace of mercy. In the exercise of mercy towards others, thou shalt taste afresh the sweetness of God's mercy to thine own soul. A gracious eye, a tender heart, an open hand, carry with them their divine reward. Who abhors not the character of the steward who was forgiven ten thousand talents by his master, but would not forgive his fellow-servant a hundred pence? On the other hand, who admires not the mercy which shines in the good Samaritan, who did the neighbour's part? This is the mercy of the gospel, seek especially to shine here — in the mercy that would seek to save the lost sinner; but forget not the mercy that shines in words, looks, and deeds. Mercy is the great need of mankind — sinners need it, saints need it, all need it. God in Christ Jesus is its source. May we be the channels of its many streams, both to the bodies and to the souls of men.

"Blessed are the merciful" (ver. 7). That is what God is. He delights in mercy, so Micah tells us. Paul, that He is rich in mercy. It is only those who realise that "Nothing but mercy will do for me," who will be merciful. You get a picture of the wonderful mercy that has been shown to Israel in the parable of the man that owed a tremendous debt. He was unconscious of the mercy that had been shown to him. Whatever a person does to us, they can never owe us what we owe to God. If we are conscious of that, it will make us tender towards others. But here we do not get what we find in the epistles; we are on higher ground there. Yet, as a rule, there are comparatively few in whom we see these characteristics, and they are obscure.

"Blessed the merciful for they shall obtain mercy." How God-like is man when seen in this character. What bright examples are seen in Joseph among his brethren and David when he had Saul in his power but would not smite him. Elisha also when he led the blinded Syrian soldiers to Samaria, and when the King of Israel said, "Shall I smite them?" "Thou shalt not smite them, set bread and water before them," was the answer of the man of God. Mercy is a quality which so affects man that his beast gets the benefit of it. It springs from an inward sympathy with God. In mercy He is sovereign, great, plenteous and tender.

Mercy was with him clearly but righteousness; and so it is with us ever, being what we are, and God being to us what He ever is. Notice distinctly how this is brought out in the recompense. The mercy that the merciful shall find will be, as elsewhere with the enjoyment of these blessings, in the coming Kingdom, and we might expect perhaps something more than this; but all the reward there is mercy, and it is well and needful to be reminded of it. So the apostle, after speaking of the self-forgetting love of Onesiphorus, who had refreshed and ministered to him in his bonds at Rome, prays, "The Lord grant unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that day" (2 Tim. 1:18). At our best, as at our worst, it is to grace that we are debtors. Grace crowns, even as grace saves.

Both words, we find, are prominent in the character of God, as proclaimed to Moses — "The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious." He is merciful to forgive, and gracious to help in every time of need. The distinction is also maintained in the most marked way by the apostolic writers.