“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Matthew 5:7
In Matthew Chapter 5, during the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus delivered eight teachings called The Beatitudes. Beatitudes comes from the Greek word beatus, meaning happy or blessed. Each Beatitude names a virtue and lists an eternal reward for that virtue.
Got Questions defines being merciful as showing compassion and forgiveness to those in need. Every person on the planet is in need of salvation, so Jesus is teaching that we should be merciful to everyone. This lesson reflects the values in Matthew 22:39, “…You shall love your neighbor as yourself.” We all desire God’s mercy, and showing mercy to others is loving them as ourselves. Showing mercy to others is not always easy, and rarely intuitive, but with the help of the Holy Spirit we are capable of it.
Matthew Henry says this about Matthew 5:7:
The merciful are happy. We must not only bear our own afflictions patiently, but we must do all we can to help those who are in misery. We must have compassion on the souls of others, and help them; pity those who are in sin, and seek to snatch them as brands out of the burning.
As with each Beatitude, Matthew Henry reminds us that “Blessed” in the New Testament means “happy”. He takes the opportunity to remind us of Romans 12:12, “Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer.” Believers are promised tribulation, but are told to trust God through it. God is faithful. We must love and support others through their afflictions, even those who are lost in their sin, remembering but for the grace of God we would also be lost. We must be constantly vigilant that we not become like the Pharisee in Luke 18:11, “The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector.’”
As children of a merciful God, we should be merciful to others, and we too will receive mercy. What a blessing!