PT-3 "Mercy and Justice" (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/7/2020 10:10 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-3 “Mercy and Justice”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!”

            We can read that those who are unmerciful will not receive mercy from God.  One of the different kinds of Psalms that is found in the book of Psalms is called an “imprecatory psalm,” and if there are any types of the psalms that people have issues with it is the imprecatory psalms.  You have to remember that the Psalms were written during the Old Testament times and in those times God was preparing to send the Messiah into the earth in the Person of Jesus Christ, and so we can see in some of these imprecatory psalms that the psalmist is writing about making sure that this happens even if it means that others will be harmed by God.  One such Psalm is written by David and again I will get some help from John MacArthur to help explain the significance of this.  “In one of his imprecatory psalms David says of an unnamed wicked man, ‘Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the Lord, and do not let the sin of his mother be blotted out.  Let them be before the Lord continually, that He may cut off their memory from the earth.’  David’s anger was not vengeful or retaliatory.  That man and his family did not deserve mercy because they were not themselves merciful.  ‘He did not remember to show lovingkindness, but persecuted the afflicted and needy man, and the despondent in heart, to put them to death’ (Ps. 109:14-16).”

            In Romans 1:29-31 we see that Paul characterizes godless mean in the following ways as we look at these three verses:  “29  being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, 30  slanderers, haters of God,

insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31  without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.”  Notice that the last one is unmerciful as mercilessness is the capstone marking those who reject God’s mercy.

            Proverbs 11:17 tells us “The merciful man does himself good, But the cruel man does himself harm.”  MacArthur adds “The way to happiness is through mercy; the way to misery is through cruelty.  The truly merciful person is even kind to animals, whereas the merciless person is cruel to everything.”  “A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel” (NIV).

            There is an example of people giving mercy and people not giving mercy in Jesus’ Olivet discourse as seen in Matthew 25:41-46, and what His primary object in the Olivet discourse is talking about what will go on in the tribulation period but we can certainly learn from what He says and apply in today’s world.  “41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ’Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; 42  for I was hungry, and you gave Me nothing to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me nothing to drink; 43  I was a stranger, and you did not invite Me in; naked, and you did not clothe Me; sick, and in prison, and you did not visit Me.’ 44  "Then they themselves also will answer, ’Lord, when did we see You hungry, or thirsty, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not take care of You?’ 45  "Then He will answer them, ’Truly I say to you, to the extent that you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’ 46  "These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.’”

            Next we will look at what James has to say in James 2:10-13a “10 For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles in one point, he has become guilty of all. 11 For He who said, "DO NOT COMMIT ADULTERY," also said, "DO NOT COMMIT MURDER." Now if you do not commit adultery, but do commit murder, you have become a transgressor of the law. 12 So speak and so act as those who are to be judged by the law of liberty. 13 For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy.” 

            We conclude this section with a quote from John MacArthur’s last paragraph:  “In the midst of our corrupt, ego-centered, and selfish society that tells us to grab everything we can get, the voice of God tells us to give everything we can give.  The true character of mercy is in giving—giving compassion, giving help, giving time, giving forgiveness, giving money, giving ourselves.  The children of the King are merciful.  Those who are merciless face judgment; but ‘mercy triumphs over judgment’ (James 2:13b).”

            Lord willing in our next SD we will look at “The Source of Mercy.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  It is my desire to give mercy just to give mercy because it is what the Lord wants me to do so.  I suppose that there have been different times in my life when I have given mercy and not even realized it, kind of like what Jesus spoke of in the section from Matthew 25.  I certainly desire for this to continue.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Continue to seek contentment, humility, and joy as I study the Word of God.

5/7/2020 10:44 AM

PT-2 "Mercy and Justice" (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/6/2020 9:37 AM

My Worship Time                                                                       Focus:  PT-2 “Mercy and Justice”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference: Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “’Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!’”

            We will continue to look at the relationship that mercy and justice have together in this SD.  We have to have the right view of mercy when it comes to God’s mercy and in the Word of God there are some examples of mercy that ignores sin which is actually false mercy.  One of the first examples comes from 1 Samuel where we read about Saul having a job to do for the Lord, but he changes what the Lord, through Samuel told him to do.  Saul showed false mercy to King Agag and did not kill him as the Lord instructed him to do and this is an example of false mercy.  David did a similar thing when he showed false mercy to his rebellious son Absalom when Absalom was young.  David should have dealt with Absalom’s sin early on but he showed false mercy to him and in the end it cost him men and also humiliation as Absalom tried to take over David’s kingdom.

            In our day today we also see this sort of false mercy, as it is common today.  It is thought of unloving or unkind to hold people responsible for their sins, however that is a cheap grace that is not just and is not merciful as this offers neither punishment nor pardon for sin.  Because it is mercy that overlooks sin, it leaves sin; and the one who relies on that sort of mercy is left in his sin.  MacArthur writes “To cancel justice is to cancel mercy.  To ignore sin is to deny the truth; and mercy and truth are inseparable, they ‘are met together’ (Ps. 85:10 KJV).  In every true act of mercy, someone pays the price.  God did, the Good Samaritan did, and so do we.  To be merciful is to bear the load for someone else.”

            We cannot expect to enter the sphere of God’s mercy without repenting from our sin for that is only wishful thinking.  The church cannot hope of God’s mercy apart from repentance from sin for that is to offer false hope through a false gospel.  MacArthur adds “God offers nothing but merciless judgment to those who will not turn from their sin to the Savior.”  We cannot rely on good works nor can we rely on God’s overlooking sin for that will not bring salvation as we mentioned above that is a false gospel.  We cannot rely on trusting in personal goodness, for that is what the Pharisees did and that too was wrong.  The ones who do not come to God on His terms have no claim on His mercy, after all God is God and we are not.

            God’s mercy is not only grounded in His love, but also in His justice.  It is grounded in Christ’s atoning blood, and not in sentiment, for His blood paid the penalty for and also cleanses from sin the ones who believe in Him.  Without being punished and removed, even the least of our sin would eternally separate us from God.

            Gospel means “good news” and the good news of the gospel is that Christ paid the penalty for all sins in order that God might be merciful to all sinners.  It was on the cross that Jesus satisfied God’s justice, and when a person trusts in that satisfying sacrifice God opens the floodgates of mercy.  MacArthur adds “The good news of the gospel is not that God winked at justice, glossed over sin, and compromised righteousness.  The good news is that in the shedding of Christ’s blood justice was satisfied, sin was forgiven, righteousness was fulfilled, and mercy was made available.  There is never an excuse for sin, but always a remedy.

            “Mercy, therefore, is more than forgiveness and less than love.  It is different from grace and is one with justice.  And what is true of God’s mercy should be true of ours.”

            It seems strange, but perhaps not really strange as I have been studying over some of my older Spiritual Diaries from the book of Genesis and today I was looking at how Abraham rescued his selfish nephew Lot from Chedorlaomer and his allies.  This was an act of mercy by Abraham for Lot.  Another example is what happened to Joseph as he forgave his brothers and also provided them with food for their families.  Mercy also led Moses to plead with the Lord to remove the leprosy that his sister Miriam had been punished with.  Mercy led David to spare the life of Saul and this happened more than one time.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I am thankful to the Lord for learning the meaning of mercy in a more inclusive way, and pray that because God has given me mercy that I will be merciful to others.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I certainly desire to understand more about mercy and also the other beatitudes that I am studying and to allow the Lord to use them in my life.  I also desire to be more content, to learn more about humility and live in humility and to have joy as I study God’s Word each day.

5/6/2020 10:15 AM

           

Mercy and Grace (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/5/2020 10:39 AM

My Worship Time                                                                                    Focus:  Mercy and Grace

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                        Reference:  Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “"Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!”

            In today’s SD we will look first of all at the short section about “Mercy and Grace” and then it is my desire to begin the next section which will take more than one day to get through and that section is “Mercy and Justice.”

Mercy and Grace:  We have been looking at different things that are related to mercy, and grace is also one that is related to mercy as this flows out of love just as forgiveness flows out of mercy.  We have in the past looked at all of Paul’s letters that he wrote to two Pastors, that is he wrote to Timothy two times and also to Titus.  In each of these letters we see in the salutations the words “grace, mercy and peace.”  You will find them in 1 Tim. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:2 and Titus 1:4 as seen in the KJV of the Bible.  John MacArthur writes that “Grace and mercy have the closest possible relationship; yet they are different.  Mercy and its related terms all have to do with pain, misery, and distress—with the consequences of sin.  Whether because of our individual sins or because of the sinful world in which we live, all of our problems, in the last analysis, are sin problems.  It is with those problems that mercy gives help.  Grace, on the other hand, deals with sin itself.  Mercy deals with the symptoms grace with the cause.  Mercy offers relief from punishment; grace offers pardon for the crime.  Mercy eliminates the pain; grace curses the disease.”

            The story of the Good Samaritan helps us to understand this better.  When he came to the man on the road and bound up his wounds which he got because he was beaten and robbed mercy was shown by him.  Now when he took him to the nearest inn and then he paid for his lodging until the man was well that is when he showed grace.  We see that his mercy relieved the pain and his grace provided for healing.

            One more illustration and that is that mercy relates to the negative; grace relates to the positive.  Now as we look at in relation to salvation mercy says, “No hell,” whereas grace says “Heaven.”  Mercy says “I pity you”; and grace says “I pardon you.”

Mercy and Justice:  As mentioned this is a fairly long section and will take us some time to get through it as we want to dig into this to best understand the relationship between mercy and justice even though on the surface they seem incompatible.  As we look at justice it gives exactly what is deserved; however mercy gives less punishment and more help that is actually deserved.  This is why it is difficult for some people to understand how God can be both just and merciful at the same time to the same person.  The question is if God is completely just, how could He ever not punish sin totally?  For Him being merciful would seem to counteract His justice.  Here is the truth and that is that God does not show mercy without punishing sin; and for Him to offer mercy with punishment would negate His justice. 

            I have told the story that I kind of made up in my mind to understand what actually is going on in the world today as it began way back in eternity past where the triune God was the only One alive as He is always been alive, something else for our finite minds to get hold of.  I have said that this story in a sense is fictional in how it happened, but it did happen.  I think of all three Persons of the trinity setting around a table having coffee and talking and God the Father says that there were some aspects of Our attributes that are not seen and so this is what I want to do.  I want to create a world which will have people on it, and before that I will create angels also.  Angels and people left along will sin against God, and so I will send my Son to earth and bring back people into fellowship with God by dying for their sins and this will satisfy my justice as He gives grace and mercy in doing this.  Okay I hope that this little story will help you see what is going on and what went on, and if you want to look at the 2^nd Psalm you will see where this story came from in my mind.  It is my desire, Lord willing, to continue to look at this rather long section in our next SD.  We don’t want to go really fast through this as there is some “heavy” things to learn from this section.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Beginning to learn about “mercy and justice” and how they both work to my benefit is probably one of the most important things that I can understand.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  This section comes from a SD that I wrote on May 26, 2006 when there were also some serious things going on in my life and the life of my wife and as I read over it this morning I thought that because of what is going on in our country it is appropriate to look at again today.  “I trust the Lord to continue to teach me from His Word so as to direct my path.  I continue to ask the Lord to work out our difficult problem and believe He will in a way that will be according to His will, and to continue to teach me contentment, and give me the grace I need each day.”

5/5/2020 11:18 AM

Mercy and Forgiveness and More (Matt 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/4/2020 9:35 AM

My Worship Time                                                                           Focus:  Mercy and Forgiveness

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “’Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!’”  (Philips).

            It is my desire to look at two different rather short sections in this SD, and even then it will be a shorter SD.  We will first look at “Mercy and Forgiveness” and then look at “Mercy and Love” as we conclude this SD.

Mercy and Forgiveness:  The reason that we will be looking at these different sections is because a clearer understanding of mercy can be gained by working through some comparisons, and the first two comparisons are what we are looking at today as we have already stated.  As we begin to look at mercy and forgiveness we can state that mercy has much in common with forgiveness however it is distinct from it.  We will look at what Paul wrote to Titus in Titus 3:5 “He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.”  MacArthur adds “God’s forgiveness of sins flows from His mercy.  But mercy is bigger than forgiveness, because God is merciful to us even when we do not sin, just as we can be merciful to those who have never done anything against us.  God’s mercy does not just forgive our transgressions but reaches to all our weakness and need.”

            Lastly in this section we will look at Lamentations 3:22 in the KJV “It is of the LORD’S mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.”  Now in the NASB “The LORD’S lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, For His compassions never fail.”  One more rendering of this verse and this time it is from the Septuagint:  “Heth.  It is the mercies of the Lord that he has not failed me because his compassions are not exhausted.”  What can we learn from this verse?  God’s mercy to His children never ceases.

Mercy and Love:  We have learned that forgiveness flows out of mercy, and now we will see that mercy flows out of love.  Let us look at Ephesians 2:4-5 “4 But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5  even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved).”  MacArthur writes “Just as mercy is more than forgiveness, love is more than mercy.  Love manifests itself in many ways that do not involve either forgiveness or mercy.  Love loves even when there is no wrong to forgive or need to meet.  The Father loves the Son and the Son loves the Father, although they both are without sin and without need.  They both love the holy angels, although the angels are without sin and need.  When we enter heaven we, too, will be without sin or need, yet God’s love for us will, in comparison to eternity, only be just beginning.”

            Perhaps this illustration will help us better understand this connection between mercy and love.  Mercy is the physician; love is the friend.  Mercy acts because of need; love acts because of affection even if there is no need.  Mercy is needed in times of trouble, therefore it is reserved for those times, yet love is consistent, with us all of the time from the Lord.  MacArthur concludes “There can be not true mercy apart from love, but there can be true love apart from mercy.”

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I think that realizing better the meaning of mercy and forgiveness and mercy and love that it will cause my prayer life to be better.  To think that God loves me in the same way that is seen in the trinity, and the love that God has for the holy angels causes me to be overwhelmed.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Remember that God loves me all of the time, and therefore I can continue to ask Him to continue to teach me more about contentment, humility, and to continue to give me joy as I study His wonderful Word each day.

5/4/2020 10:11 AM  

PT-3 "The Meaning of Mercy" (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/3/2020 9:35 AM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-3 “The Meaning of Mercy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “’Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!’” (Philips).

            We have been writing about the meaning of mercy and so let us take a look at what John MacArthur has to say about this word “Merciful is from eleemon, from which we also get eleemosynary, meaning beneficial or charitable.  Hebrew 2:17 speaks of Jesus as our ‘merciful and faithful high priest.’  Christ is the supreme example of mercy and the supreme dispenser of mercy.  It is from Jesus Christ that both redeeming and sustaining mercy come.

            “In the Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) that same term is used to translate the Hebrew hesed, one of the most commonly used words to describe God’s character.  It is usually translated as mercy, love, lovingkindness, or steadfast love (Ps. 17:7; 51:1; Isa. 63:7; Jer. 9:24; etc.)  The basic meaning is to give help to the afflicted and to rescue the helpless.  It is compassion in action.”  Now as I think about the meaning of this word as it speaks of giving help to the afflicted and to rescue the helpless it makes me think of how I, and every believer were when the Holy Spirit of God gave them His effectual call as we were all “poor in spirit,” and so God looked down on us to save us.

            Jesus is not talking about something that we need, yet cannot have, some detached or powerless sentiment that is unwilling or unable to help those for whom there is sympathy.  He is not speaking of false mercy, the feigned pity, that gives help only to salve a guilty conscience or to impress others with its appearance of virtue.  And another thing this is not passive, silent concern which, through genuine, is unable to give any tangible help.  What this is is genuine help, selfless concern expressed in selfless deeds.

            Now before we go on I want to remind us all once again that the book of Matthew was written to the Jewish people and Matthew is portraying Jesus as the King, which is exactly what He is.  Another thing I want to remind us is that the Sermon on the Mount is given to believers, believers who will one day be in the earthly kingdom of God and its instructions are on how believers will live while in that Kingdom.  Believers today are in what we have called the invisible kingdom as Christ reigns over His kingdom from heaven, but we have learned that after the church goes to be with the Lord in what is called the “Rapture” that there will be seven years of great difficulty for all who live in what is called the tribulation period, and then at the end Jesus returns to set up His earthly kingdom that will last for 1000 years.

            “Jesus says in effect, ‘The people in My kingdom are not takers but givers, not pretending helpers but practical helpers.  They are not condemners but mercy givers’” (MacArthur).   This certainly is not the way that the world lives in Jesus’ time or in our time as they are pretty much the opposite of being merciful, and if they try to be merciful it has the motive of getting something out of it for themselves.  Jesus had to get on the Pharisees over their tradition of Corban, and this was a way for the Pharisees to get out of helping their mothers and fathers as they gave the funds that were to go to them to the synagogue so they could get their hands on it, as there was certainly no mercy in that tradition, only selfishness. 

            We will end with a quote from John MacArthur and then a quote from Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice.”

            Mercy is meeting people’s needs.  It is not simply feeling compassion but showing compassion, not only sympathizing but giving a helping hand.  Mercy is giving food to the hungry, comfort to the bereaved, love to the rejected, forgiveness to the offender, companionship to the lonely.  It is therefore one of the lovliest and noblest of all virtues.

“The quality of mercy is not strain’d;

It droppeth, as the gentle rain from heaven,

Upon the place beneath:  it is twice bless’d

It blesseth him that gives, and him that takes:

Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes

The throned monarch better than his crown.

5/3/2020 10:08 AM

The Meaning of Mercy PT-2 (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/2/2020 8:38 AM

My Worship Time                                                              Focus:  PT-2 “The Meaning of Mercy”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:12

            Message of the verse:  “Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!”

            I mentioned in our last SD that we would look at how the Roman’s viewed mercy as we begin this SD.  There was a popular Roman philosopher who called mercy “the disease of the soul.”  Mercy was as the supreme sign of weakness as it was a sign that you did not have what it takes to be a real man, but also a real Roman.  That was the problem as the Romans glorified manly courage, strict justice, firm discipline, and above all they believed in absolute power.  MacArthur adds “They looked down on mercy, because mercy to them was weakness, and weakness was despised above all other human limitations.”

        Next we will move into some things that the Romans did that have been happening in our own country, and around the world that are similar.  Roman fathers had the right of patria opitestas.  Here is the definition of patria Opitestas “Definition of patria opitestas:

“ the power of the head of a Roman family over his wife, children, agnatic descendants, slaves, and freedmen including originally the right to punish by death and always embracing complete control over the limited personal and private rights and duties of all members of the family.” When a Roman father was presented with the birth of a child he had the right, under Roman law, to put a thumbs up to keep the baby, or thumbs down to have the baby drowned.  If the husband did not was not thrilled with his wife he could have her killed, and if he did not like a slave he could kill the slave also.  As mentioned this type of “law” goes along with the practice of abortion that has killed many millions of babies in our country and around the world.  John MacArthur writes “A society that despises mercy is a society that glorifies brutality.” 

            Since the fall of mankind back in Genesis chapter three the underlying motive of self-concern has characterized men in general and societies in general.  You can hear the expression “If you don’t look out for yourself, no one else will.” What we can see since the fall of man is that men are not naturally inclined to repay mercy for mercy, and so as stated that is not the meaning of this fifth beatitude.

            As a believer looks through the gospels at the life of Christ they can determine that He was the most merciful human being who ever lived.  We can see this through the many miracles that He did while on the earth, and John tells us at the end of his gospel “24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true. 25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself *would not contain the books that would be written” (John 21:24-25).

            I want to close this SD by a quotation from MacArthur’s commentary which talks about Jesus’ mercy and how it was a part of the reason that He was killed.  “The more Jesus showed mercy, the more He showed up the unmercifulness of the Jewish religious leaders.  The more He showed mercy, the more they were determined to put Him out of the way. The ultimate outcome of His mercy was the cross.  In Jesus’ crucifixion, two merciless systems—merciless government and merciless religion—united to kill Him.  Totalitarian Rome joined intolerant Judaism to destroy the Prince of mercy.

            “The fifth beatitude does not teach that mercy to men brings mercy from men, but that mercy to men brings mercy from God.  If we are merciful to others, God will be merciful to us, whether men are or not.  God is the subject of the second clause, just as in the other beatitudes.  It is God who gives the kingdom of heaven to the poor in spirit, comfort to those who mourn, the earth to the meek, and satisfaction to those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Those who are ‘merciful…shall receive mercy from God.’  God gives the divine blessings to those who obey His divine standards.”

            Lord willing we will finish this section on the meaning of mercy in our next SD.

5/2/2020 9:11 AM

Intro to "Happy are the Merciful" and more (Matt. 5:7)

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/1/2020 11:28 AM

My Worship Time                                                                  Focus:  “Happy Are The Merciful”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                 Reference:  Matthew 5:7

            Message of the verse:  “Happy are the merciful, for they will have mercy shown to them!” (Philips)

            As we begin this SD we move to Matthew 5:7 and it is my desire today to not only look at the introduction to this verse, but then to move on to look at “The Meaning of Mercy.”  That section is very long, but we will do our best to get a good part of it looked at today, Lord willing.

            Review:  We have learned that the first four beatitudes that we have been looking at for some time now dealt entirely with inner principles, that are principles of the heart and of the mind.  What they are concerned of is with the way we see ourselves before God.  Now as we move onto the first of the last four beatitudes we will see that they are outward manifestations of those attitudes. MacArthur writes that “Those who in poverty of spirit recognize their need of mercy and led to show mercy to others (v.7).  Those who mourn over their sin are led to purity of heart (v. 8).  Those who are meek always seek to make peace (v. 9).  And those who hunger and thirst for righteousness are never unwilling to pay the price of being persecuted for righteousness’ sake (v.10).”

            We can look from Genesis to Revelation and see the concept of mercy as mercy is a desperately needed gift of God’s providential and redemptive work on behalf of sinners.  The Lord requires His people to follow His example by extending mercy to others. 

            John MacArthur writes “To discover its essence we will look at three basic aspects of mercy:  its meaning, its source, and its practice.”

            Now as we begin to look at the “Meaning of Mercy” we will discover that we first will look at an introduction to this and then will look at several sub-sections towards the end of this first main point:  Mercy and Forgiveness; Mercy and Love; Mercy and Grace; and Mercy and Justice.

PT-1 “The Meaning of Mercy”

            The culture when our Lord was on earth did not really characterized mercy.  We have talked many times about the Pharisees and the fact that they thought that they were a given to get into heaven and so they actually looked down at everyone else including Jesus Christ.  So their character did not include mercy, because of their proud hearts.  As Jesus was preaching to the Jewish crowds it can pretty much be assured that once He began to talk about mercy that they considered it one of the least of virtues, and perhaps it was not even thought of as a virtue.  Love was in the same category as mercy for they thought that you only love those who love you so that would mean that you only showed mercy to those who showed mercy to you.  John MacArthur writes “That attitude was condemned by Jesus later in the Sermon on the Mount.  ‘You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy’’(Matt. 5:43).  But such a shallow, selfish kind of love that even the outcast tax-gathers practiced (v. 46) was not acceptable to the Savior.  He said, ‘Love your enemies, and pray for those who persecute you in order that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven…For if you love those who love you, what reward have you?...And if you greet your brothers only, what do you do more than others?  Do not even the Gentiles do the same?’ (vv. 44-47).”

            There are many people that have interpreted this beatitude in another way which is just as selfish and humanistic as they maintain that our being merciful causes those around us, and especially those we show mercy to, to be merciful to us.  They think that mercy given will mean mercy received.  For such people, mercy is shown to others purely in an effort toward self-seeking.

            In his commentary John MacArthur quotes Gamaliel from the Talmud as he said “Whenever thou hast mercy, God will have mercy upon thee, and if thou hast not mercy, neither will God have mercy on thee.”  MacArthur goes on to write “Gamaliel’s idea is right.  When God is involved there will be mercy for mercy.  ‘If you forgive men for their transgressions,’ Jesus said, ‘your heavenly Father will also forgive you.  But if you do not forgive men, then your Father will not forgive your transgressions’ (Matt. 6:14-15).

            “But as a platitude applied among men, the principle does not work.  One writer sentimentally says, ‘This is the great truth of life:  if people see us care, they will care.’  Yet neither Scripture nor experience bears out that idea.  God works that way, but the world does not.  With God there is always proper reciprocation, and with interest.  If we honor God, He will honor us; if we show mercy to others, especially to His children, He will show even more abundant mercy to us.  But that is not the world’s way.”

            Now the next part of “the meaning of mercy” has some things in it that are unfortunately true, as we will be getting into how the world viewed mercy when Jesus was on earth and because of that they eventually killed him.  We will look more into the Jewish view of mercy, and then the Roman view of mercy which was very cruel, in a similar way that goes on in our world today.

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  Learning that if I show mercy to others that then God will show mercy to me is something that I can’t remember learning before.

My Steps of Faith for Today:  I desire to continue to have joy as I study God’s Word, and to continue to have God teach me contentment, and humility.

5/1/2020 12:22 PM