To the question “God is Gracious...” asked by the author Marriage the best answer is “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy” (Matt. 5:7). Those people who are merciful and compassionate towards all other people are called merciful. Gracious people have kind heart, and they are always willing to help people in need whenever possible. For this, merciful people themselves will be awarded great mercy from God, they will be pardoned. From the perspective of Christian teaching, to be merciful means to treat other people better than they deserve it. This is how God treats people, showing His great mercy to the wicked and ungrateful. The Apostle Paul speaks about this: “Be kind to one another, compassionate, forgiving one another, just as God in Christ forgave you” (Eph. 4:32). To be merciful means to be like God. “The Lord is generous and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in mercy” (Ps. 103:8). The Lord is the source of mercy. In the Old Testament, God spoke to Moses like this: “The Lord God, merciful and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in kindness and truth, preserving [righteousness and showing] mercy to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin” (Ex. 34:6-7). Jesus Christ proclaimed these same qualities of mercy and kindness in His Sermon on the Mount: “Love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked.” Therefore be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:35-36).
However, showing mercy does not come down to justifying all types of sin, does not come down to showing tolerance for stupidity and evil, and does not come down to submission to injustice and lawlessness. To be merciful means, first of all, to have compassion for lost people and help them get rid of sin, and to be able to forgive people who do wrong. And as the Bible says: “Forgiveness is with You, let them revere You” (Ps. 129:3-4).
The Lord does not ask people whether they are worthy of His love, but pours out the riches of His love onto sinful humanity. Therefore, “let us love Him, because He first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Let us imitate the Lord in our merciful attitude towards our neighbors. The merciful and merciful are involved in God and through such people Divine love is manifested. Therefore, the merciful do not strive to judge their neighbor, but to help him and save him. Truly merciful people are those who show compassion and sympathy for the poor, suffering and oppressed people. There is peace and tranquility in a compassionate soul. And the Holy Spirit, abiding in such a soul, manifests itself in good deeds, softens hardened souls and causes mutual reconciliation and mercy. The merciful will receive mercy, that is, they will reap (receive) what they sow. “A charitable soul will be satisfied, and whoever gives water to others will also be given water” (Prov. 11:25). Jesus Christ in the Sermon on the Mount said these words: “As you want people to do to you, do so to them” (Matthew 7:12). And if a person wants to do good to him and show help, compassion and mercy, then he himself must do these good deeds. And it gives a person strength for good deeds constant feeling in the soul of God's mercy. Therefore, a person, no matter what the peak spiritual development he has not achieved, he must always ask God for mercy towards himself and forgiveness of his sins with the words of the “Prayer of the Publican”: “God be merciful to me, a sinner.” Like the Lord, a person should show mercy to other people.
“And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Matthew 6:12).
“For if you forgive people their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you” (Matthew 6:14-15).
Answer from King Katia[guru]
Yes, I’m communicating with you and His mercy is already on me... because for a bunch of my sins I’m still alive, I see, I hear and I understand.
Answer from Caucasian[guru]
We live, walk on earth, breathe air. .
thanks to the mercy of the Lord!
In my opinion, the Lord’s mercy is Great justice: everyone receives what he deserves, whether he is alive or dead, in this world or in another, what he has done before others will return to everyone...
“Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.” Matthew 5:7
The state of the Jewish religion in the days of Christ was shallow, superficial, ostentatious and ritualistic. The Jewish leaders thought they were spiritually secure and certain to inherit the Kingdom of God. They thought they would be leaders in the Kingdom of the Messiah.
However, our Lord said to these people: “You are like whitewashed tombs, which on the outside appear beautiful, but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27). Earlier, John the Baptist, who entered into ministry, said to the scribes and Pharisees who were coming to him to be baptized: “You generation of vipers! Who inspired you to flee from the wrath to come? Produce fruit worthy of repentance, and do not think of saying to yourselves: Our father is Abraham” ( Matthew 3:7-9). In other words: “Don’t expect your origins to save you.
“For I say to you, that from these stones God is able to raise up children for Abraham; even the ax lies by the root of the trees; every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. I baptize you with water for repentance, but He who comes after me is mightier. me; I am not worthy to bear His shoes; He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire; His fork is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor, and will gather His wheat into the barn, and will burn the chaff with unquenchable fire" (Matthew 3:9- 12).
John the Baptist spoke of the Last Judgment to which all who adhere to a superficial religion will be subjected. The ax was already raised and the fire was already kindled.
Jesus confronts all who seek outward, selfish self-righteousness: “The whole point is not in the outward, but in the inward.” He rejects everything that they could claim credit for and speaks to the very essence. Christ always gives Special attention internal state. He does not ignore what happens from the outside, but considers it as the result of an internal impulse.
Inner righteousness produces outer fruits, expressed through appropriate actions. But one can demonstrate virtue only for show, and then it will be legalism. Jesus wants actions to flow from true character.
The sixth and seventh chapters of Matthew's Gospel are about actions: what we do, say, or think. The prerequisite for the Sermon on the Mount is the condition of the person's heart. Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes: "Christianity is something such, what precedes some kind of action."
To be a son of the Kingdom, to be in the Kingdom, means first of all to have a certain character, i.e. to be aware of your spiritual poverty, to cry over your sinfulness, to be meek, to hunger and thirst for righteousness, to be merciful, to be pure in heart, to be a peacemaker. We are not talking about controlling our Christianity. On the contrary, our Christianity must have control over us.
Living as a Christian is not just about putting on a pretty façade. Christianity is something that touches our very essence, and only after that does it manifest itself from within in our outer life. God was never satisfied with only the blood of sacrificial oxen and goats. He was never satisfied with outward spiritual activity, but desired to see a righteous heart (Amos 5:21-24).
This is why Jesus made several statements to the crowd that were incomprehensible to them. In the first beatitude He says: "You are in need of spiritual bankruptcy. You must realize that you are hopelessly poor and that you have nothing good to offer before God, and all your hope is to realize that you are in darkness, and to understand that you cannot help yourself at all. You must not be satisfied with your own self-righteousness. You must weep over your sinfulness. Moreover, you must not be proud of keeping certain laws. You must show meekness before a holy God. You must feel the hunger of righteousness. ".
The first four beatitudes are entirely internal. The principles of what state you are in before God are based on them. The fifth commandment, although also related to the internal state, at the same time affects external manifestation our inner essence, i.e. the way we treat other people. This is the fruit of the first four beatitudes. When we recognize our inner spiritual poverty, when we weep over our sinfulness, when we are meek and thirsty for righteousness, the result is that we become merciful to others.
The first four beatitudes lead directly to the next four. The first four are internal qualities, and the next four topics external results in which they appear.
When we are spiritually poor and aware of our poverty, we have a desire to give to other poor people, i.e. we will be merciful.
Realizing our sinfulness, we wash our hearts with tears of repentance, and we become pure in heart.
By being meek we become peacemakers, because meekness leads to peace.
And if we thirst for the truth, we have a desire to be persecuted for the truth.
Now let's look at what it means to be merciful. Jesus' statement, although very simple, is so deep and vast that I find it difficult to know where to begin. I feel that I could not say everything that could be said even if I devoted a whole book to this one verse. But let's do our best.
The importance of mercy
What does it mean to be merciful? This was not easy for the Jews who lived at the time of Jesus Christ to understand. They themselves, like the Romans who ruled their country, were unmerciful. Instead, they were proud, selfish, self-righteous, and judgmental of others. And what Jesus said affected them most directly.
People often view this bliss from a humanistic point of view. They say: “If you are good to others, they will be good to you.” Even the Talmud recognizes some of the greatness of the human virtue of mercy, and quotes Gamaliel: “If you are merciful, then God will be merciful to you, but if you have no mercy to others, then God will not have mercy on you.”
Apparently the idea that if you are kind to others, they will be kind to you is based on a human point of view. And even people, thinking theologically, like Gamaliel, think: “If I do this for God, then God will do the same for me.”
One author put the fifth beatitude this way: “This is the greatest truth of life: if people see you care about them, they will care about you.” However, it's not all that simple. If you talk about God, then you will enjoy complete reciprocity. If we truly praise God, then God will take care of us, as Gamaliel says. However, the world will not do this, believe me. The fact remains that the Romans had no mercy and did not know it, no matter how well the people did.
One Roman philosopher said that mercy “is a disease of the soul,” it is a sign of weakness. The Romans highly valued justice and courage, discipline and strength, but they did not respect mercy. When a child was born into a Roman family, the father had the right Patria potestas. If he wanted the child to stay alive, then he raised his finger up, but if he put his finger down, then the child was immediately drowned in water.
If a Roman citizen no longer wanted his slave, he could kill him and bury him in the ground at any time, and no legal action could be brought against him. He could also kill his wife with impunity if he wished. Therefore, if you were to talk to people who lived during the Roman Empire, you could not convince them that in human society mercy gives rise to mutual mercy. That didn't happen then.
The same applies to our selfish and insatiable society in its greed. In our time, the following saying would be true: “Show someone mercy, and he will step on your neck!”
The best proof of people's unmercifulness is their attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ. He was the most merciful of all people who ever lived. He went to the sick and healed them. He healed the crippled, restored sight to the blind, opened the ears of the deaf and gave speech to the dumb. He found harlots, publicans and drunkards, brought them into the circle of His love, redeemed them and put them on the true path.
He met lonely people and surrounded them with love. He took small children in his arms and, hugging them, showed His love. There has never been anyone on human earth who has shown so much mercy. Once I met funeral procession, He saw her crying only son mother. She was already a widow, and now her son died to take care of her. Who will take care of her now? Jesus stopped the funeral procession, laid His hands on the coffin and raised the dead young man and took care of his mother.
The Gospel of John chapter 8 describes an incident when Christ forgave a woman accused of adultery. What mercy! When the scribes and Pharisees saw Him eating with publicans and sinners (Mark 2:16), they asked His disciples: “How is it that He eats and drinks with publicans and sinners?” He communicated with people at the very bottom of society!
Christ was the most merciful of all the people who ever lived on earth, and yet people demanded His blood. If mercy had received due recognition, they would not have nailed Him to the cross, would not have spat in His face and would not have cursed Him. From the people to whom He had shown so much mercy, He received no mercy.
Two uncharitable systems, Roman and Jewish, united in a common desire to kill Christ. But the mercy spoken of here does not receive its due reward in human society. That's not what we're talking about here.
What then did our Lord mean? Very simple thing: be kind to others, and God will be merciful to you. The second half of the phrase refers to God.
The word itself gracious comes from the Greek word Eliamosuna, which in turn comes from the word oil of oil, What means - charity. This word appears in the same form only one other time in the New Testament. Namely, in Hebrews 2:17: “Therefore He was forced in all things to become like the brethren, that He might be a merciful and faithful High Priest.” Christ is the greatest example mercy-. He is the Great High Priest who intercedes for us, and from Him comes mercy.
The verb form of this word appears very often in Scripture. Matthew 6:3 uses it to refer to almsgiving. Hebrew synonym for this word chesed means: “to have mercy, to have compassion for the suffering, to help the needy, to save the unfortunate.” In general, everything you do for the benefit of someone in need is mercy.
We often think of forgiveness in the work of our salvation when it comes to mercy, but the word has a broader meaning. It goes beyond compassion, beyond expressions of sympathy. It means both sympathy and compassion shown in action towards someone in need. The Lord speaks about this truth Eliamosuna- this is not the powerless sympathy that carnal egoism feels, but never does anything concrete. Nor is it a false charity that justifies our own carnal nature and gives false peace to our troubled conscience. This is not silent and passive compassion, which never brings any real help to others. But this is true compassion, driven by a pure and unselfish urge to help those in need.
In other words, what Jesus said can be expressed as follows: “The sons of My Kingdom do not take, but give to others. The sons of My Kingdom do not put themselves above others, but they stoop low to serve others.”
Jesus told the story of a man who did not want to help even his own parents financially under the pretext that he had already promised to give a sacrifice to God and now could not break his promise. Jesus went on to tell them, "You are in a dangerous position. You have replaced God's commandment, 'Honor your father and mother,' with your own traditions of your own making." (See Matt. 15:1-9).
Such were the Jews! They were unmerciful even to their own parents.
Mercy is feeding the hungry. Mercy is giving love to those who ask for it. Mercy is sharing loneliness with the lonely. Grace is help in need and not just sympathize.
To understand what mercy is, let’s make a brief comparison of similar words found in Scripture. This may seem like a difficult task, but let's do it, and I think you will be delighted, as I once was, when I discovered this truth.
Titus 3:5 tells us, “He saved...according to His mercy.” In Ephesians 2:4-9 we learn that God saved us because of His rich mercy. It was God's mercy that allowed Him to save us. So behind forgiveness there is mercy. Grace and forgiveness go hand in hand.
Daniel 9:9 says, “But with the Lord our God there is mercy and forgiveness.” Psalm 129:1-7 also shows a direct connection between mercy and forgiveness:
“From the depths I cry to You, LORD. Lord, hear my voice. Let Your ears be attentive to the voice of my prayers. If You, LORD, notice iniquities, - Lord! who can stand? But with You is forgiveness, let them revere You. "My soul waits for the LORD; I trust in His word. My soul waits for the LORD more than the watchmen for the morning, and more than for the watchmen for the morning. Let Israel trust in the LORD; for with the LORD is mercy, and with him is much redemption."
Here is a personal prayer of repentance, a request for forgiveness and an acknowledgment that forgiveness flows from a fountain of mercy. We cannot think of mercy without considering that it is expressed in forgiveness, and we cannot think of forgiveness without its source - mercy. But forgiveness is not the only expression of mercy. We cannot limit mercy.
Grace is clearly more than just forgiveness. Psalm 119:64 says, “The earth is full of Your mercy, O LORD...”; Genesis 32:10: “I am unworthy of all mercies and all good deeds.” 2 Samuel 24:14 says, “...for great is His mercy.” In the prophet Nehemiah 9:19: “But You, according to Your great mercy”; Psalm 68:14: “According to Your great goodness...” Forgiveness is an act of mercy, but there are many other ways to show mercy.
In the book of Lamentations, perhaps the most beautiful description of mercy is given: “By the mercy of the LORD we have not perished, for His mercy has not failed; it is renewed every morning; great is Thy faithfulness!” (3:22-23).
What can be said about love and mercy? Can they be compared? We have already said that forgiveness flows from mercy. But where does mercy itself come from? - Out of love. Why is God merciful? “God is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us” (Eph. 2:4). Do you see this sequence? God loves, and love is merciful, mercy forgives and does much more.
Mercy is greater than forgiveness, and love is greater than mercy, because love can do much more than mercy. Mercy itself reminds us of need. Love acts regardless of whether there is a need.
For example, the Father loves the Son, but the Son does not need mercy. The Father loves the angels, and the angels love the Father, but none of them needs mercy. Grace is a doctor, love is a friend. Love acts according to disposition, mercy - according to need. Love is constant, but mercy is needed only for a while. Mercy cannot exist without love. Do you see how God's great love meets our needs through mercy?
There is another difference. When we are righteous and do not need mercy, He will love us then. He will love us in eternity, and there we will no longer need mercy. But in this life, love comes to us through mercy, and mercy comes down to forgiveness.
What can we say about mercy and grace? You are close to one of the most complex theological topics. Under the term mercy and its derivatives always imply the resolution of a number of problems: pain, suffering, despair. Grace deals with sin. Mercy resolves the symptoms of problems, and grace forgives crime. Grace works first. She removes sin. And mercy removes punishment.
In the parable of the Good Samaritan, mercy leads to relief from suffering. Grace brings the victim to the hotel. Mercy deals with negative things and grace deals with positive things. Mercy removes pain and grace brings about a better situation. Mercy says hell no. Grace points to heaven. Grace says, “I show you compassion.” Grace says, "I forgive you." Thus, mercy and grace are two wonderful sides of the same coin. God offers people both sides.
What can be said about mercy and justice? People say, "If God is just, how can He be merciful?" If we approach this issue from the standpoint of the justice, holiness, and righteousness of God, can He neglect the demands of justice? Can He say, “I know you are a sinner, and I know how badly you have done, yet I am so merciful that I am willing to forgive you”? Can He do it? - Yes maybe. Why? - Because He came into this world in human body, took upon Himself human sins and carried them to the cross with His body.
He paid the price for all our sins. By death on the cross, Christ satisfied the demand for justice. God has already said earlier that there is no forgiveness without the shedding of blood. He also indicated that in due time the perfect sacrifice would be made for the sins of the whole world. And this sacrifice was Christ. The demands of justice were satisfied. Mercy is not a violation of justice.
When I speak of God's mercy, I do not mean foolish sentimentality that excuses sin. There is too much of this goodness even in the church. God extends His mercy to the sinner only because Someone has already paid the price for his sin. There is a false, foolish, sentimental mercy that just wants to abolish justice and doesn't want people to pay for anything. King Saul once spared King Agag (1 Sam. 15). This was a violation of Divine holiness. David also showed foolish mercy to Absalom by allowing the seed of rebellion to grow in his heart (2 Sam. 13). Never forget this. Psalm 84:11 says, “Mercy and truth will meet.”
God will never violate the truth of justice and holiness in order to be merciful. He shows mercy only when the demands of justice are satisfied. If Absalom had repented and accepted God's truth, then mercy towards him would have been real. However, this did not happen because he was rebellious.
There are people in churches who live in sins and do not even try to fight evil. However, they hope for mercy. Look at what the Apostle James writes: “Whoever keeps the whole law and yet sins in one point is guilty of all. For the same one who said, “You shall not commit adultery,” also said, “You shall not kill,” therefore, if you If you do not commit adultery, but kill, then you are also a transgressor of the law. So speak and do so, as those who are to be judged according to the law of freedom. For judgment is without mercy to him who showed no mercy..." (James 2:10-13).
People who do not accept the truth and do not realize the meaning of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ will face an unmerciful judgment. We're not talking about sentimentality. If you sin all your life and do not acknowledge Jesus Christ, God does not promise to show you mercy and accept you to Himself. You will be judged without mercy.
So mercy is something special. There's more to it than just forgiveness. But this is something less than love. It is different from grace. It goes hand in hand with justice. A merciful person not only hears slander evil people, but in response to this his heart is filled with compassion for them. The merciful shows sympathy towards other people. He forgives others. He is attentive and kind to others. But he is not so sentimental as to believe that sin will go unpunished or irresponsible just because people are already experiencing sadness and grief.
Psalm 36:21 says, “The wicked borrows and does not repay; but the righteous is compassionate and gives.” If my son comes to me and says, “Dad, I did wrong, forgive me,” then I will show him mercy. However, I told my children when they were little: "If I find out that you have told me a lie, or you try to hide anything from me, then do not expect mercy. You will be punished."
Abraham showed mercy to his nephew Lot after he treated him unfairly.
Joseph showed mercy to his brothers and helped them despite the fact that they did him such great harm.
Moses showed mercy to his sister Miriam, who rebelled against him, for which God struck her with leprosy, and began to pray: “God, heal her!” (Num. 12:13).
David showed mercy to Saul and twice did not take advantage of the opportunity to kill him. (See 1 Samuel 24 and 26).
In Psalm 109:14-15 we read about the unmerciful man: “Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered before the LORD, and the sin of his mother not be blotted out. May they always be in the sight of the LORD, and may He blot out their memory from the earth.” Why? Lord, why do you want to punish this man so badly? Why do you blame him so harshly? “Because he did not think to show mercy, but pursued the poor and needy and broken-hearted man, in order to kill him” (Ps. 109:16).
Those who are willing to meet others halfway are merciful, not those who want to take from others. God helps us overcome the evil in this world, and we hear His voice calling us to give all we have.
If someone attacks us, we must be merciful. Patient, well-disposed, treated with sympathy. If someone, by mistake, misunderstanding, or even intentionally, does not pay us a debt or does not return what he borrowed from us, we must show mercy. We must have the character of sons of the Kingdom of God.
Proverbs 11:17 says, “A merciful man does good to his soul, but a hard-hearted man destroys his flesh.” Do you want to be truly unhappy? - Be merciless. Do you want to be truly blissful? - Be merciful. “The righteous man cares for the life of his livestock, but the heart of the wicked is hard” (Proverbs 12:10). The righteous are merciful even to animals. The wicked are cruel to everyone.
Do you want to know what the Bible says about the society of the wicked? “So they are full of all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, malice, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, slanderers, slanderers, haters of God, offenders, self-praisers, proud, resourceful for evil, disobedient to their parents. Reckless, treacherous, unloving, irreconcilable, unmerciful" (Rom. 1:29-31).
Does this mean that unmercifulness reigns in the world? - Apparently, yes.
But which of us, having received mercy from God, can remain unmerciful? What do we deserve? If we are so desperate for God's mercy, can we be hard-hearted towards someone else? This brings us to our next point.
Source of mercy
God is the source of mercy, but only towards those who have fulfilled the four previous beatitudes. Mercy is not natural property person. From time to time a person may show mercy, but it is not the norm of behavior. We can be merciful only if God lives in us, giving this mercy. And there is only one way to become merciful - this is to receive God's righteousness through Jesus Christ. This is exactly what Jesus is talking about. If we take the blessed path of hunger and thirst for righteousness, which only God can quench, we will know what mercy is.
People want to be blessed, but they don't want to live in such a way as to receive that blessing. They are like the false prophet Balaam, who said: “Let my soul die the death of the righteous...” (Num. 23:10). One Puritan preacher said: “It is good that Balaam wanted to die as a righteous man, but the bad thing is that he did not want to live like a righteous man.” And only those who come to the Holy God, conscious of their spiritual poverty and striving for God's righteousness, have mercy.
The psalmist says: “For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is the mercy of the Lord toward those who fear Him” (Ps. 102:11). We fear God, we come to Christ, and God gives us His mercy. This is why Christ says: “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Luke 6:36). Nothing else can compare to the mercy shown by Christ on the cross, and Christ became our merciful High Priest (Heb. 2:17). Dr. Donald Gray Barnhouse puts it this way:
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, everything necessary for God to save man was accomplished, and the prophecies given earlier became historical fact. God is now showing mercy towards us. And therefore, if someone asks God: “God, be merciful to me,” this is tantamount to asking Him to sacrifice Christ again. All of God's mercy towards man has already been realized with the death of Christ. This is mercy for everyone. There can be nothing more. And God can deal with us on the basis of His mercy, since He has already fully poured out His mercy on us. The source of mercy is now completely open and accessible, and from it flows the mercy of God."
The Essence of Mercy
What does it mean to be merciful? Holy Bible answers this question and calls us to be merciful. Matt. 5-6; Rome. 15; 2 Cor. 1; Gal. 6; Eph. 4; Col. 3 and many other places. How can you be merciful?
1. Physically.
Giving money to the poor, food to the hungry, clothes to the naked, shelter to the homeless. The Old Testament shows many ways in which mercy can be shown. A merciful person never holds a grudge against anyone, never takes revenge, never repays evil for evil, never boasts against the background of someone else’s weakness, never puts obstacles in the way of others, never counts the sins of others. St. Augustine was such a merciful man that he always invited those who had nothing to eat to his huge and beautiful dinner table. Above the table was engraved the inscription: “If anyone likes to dishonor someone’s name, this table is not for him, let him fast.”
A person who is self-righteous and self-justifying is like the priest and Levite in the parable of the Good Samaritan, who did not help their fellow man.
2. Spiritually.
St. Augustine said: “If I weep for one whose soul has left his body, how much more should I weep for one whose soul has been forsaken by God.” We shed tears for the dead. Well, what do we do when it comes to the souls of people? How to explain the fact that if I, as a Christian, am not righteous and poor in spirit; if I cry about my sinfulness, my poverty and my hopeless condition; if I am contrite, humble and meek; and I hunger and thirst for that which I need, but which I myself cannot achieve; and after all, having received mercy and compassion emanating from the loving God's heart, do not show mercy and compassion to other people?
I hear Stephen, being stoned, praying to God: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them” (Acts 7:60). He had compassion for their souls. We should treat the lost with compassion, and not elevate ourselves by thinking that we are much better than them.
Instruction. 2 Timothy 2:25 says, “Train your opponents with gentleness, lest God grant them repentance to the knowledge of the truth.” Instructing means pointing people to their sins so that they repent and God forgives them. People need the preaching of the Gospel.
Titus 1:13 says, "...rebuke them strictly, that they may be sound in the faith." We show concern for the soul of a sinner when we openly expose his sin. Such an action is not contrary to love. Verse 23 of Jude says that some people can be saved by fear, "pulling them out of the fire." In this case, this is not a manifestation of hatred, but a manifestation of love.
Mercy convicts. Before a person can realize his sinfulness, his sin must be pointed out to him.
Prayer. Praying for those who do not know God is an act of mercy. Do we pray for lost sinners? Do we pray for our neighbors? Do we pray for those believers who do not obey God? Our prayer for them is an act of mercy and it brings God's blessing.
Sermon. I believe that preaching the gospel is the most necessary and most merciful thing we can do for the salvation of lost souls.
So we can show mercy to a person through compassion, instruction, prayer and preaching.
Results of mercy
The result of mercy is receiving mercy. How wonderful it is! Do you see this cycle developing? God shows us even greater mercy. 2 Samuel 22:26 tells us that those who are merciful receive mercy themselves. But it is also said about the unmerciful: “Judgment is without mercy to him who has shown no mercy” (James 2:13).
The same thing is said in Psalm 17 and Proverbs chapter 14. However, I now come to a serious warning, and it is decisive.
Some people think that mercy is the path to salvation. This is a mistake made by the Roman Catholic Church, which teaches that God is pleased with those who do works of mercy, and that God shows mercy to such people. The system of monasteries and monasticism is based on this teaching. However, it is impossible to earn salvation in this way. We cannot earn mercy. Mercy is needed where there is no merit, and if there is merit, then there is no mercy.
However, the one who is shown mercy must himself be merciful. The one who has received forgiveness must forgive himself. And if you are a merciful person, this can serve as proof that you are a child of God, and therefore whenever you sin, God forgives you. Whenever you have a need, He meets you halfway. He cares about you. He pours out mercy after mercy on those who has mercy, since he, in turn, receives mercy from a merciful God.
“The Lord is generous and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy. The Lord is good to all, and His tender mercies are in all His works” (Psalm 144:8,9).
I think that by studying the Lord's mercy we can gain full revelation of the Lord's willingness to heal us. During His earthly service Lord always was driven by compassion and healed all who needed it, and the same Jesus who said, “It is better for you if I go away,” is now planted right hand Father,
to be a merciful (compassionate) and faithful High Priest for us.
In Scripture, “pity, compassion” and “mercy” mean the same thing. Hebrew noun rahamin can be translated as “mercy” and “compassion”. Greek verb eleeo translated as “have mercy” and “have mercy” and, accordingly, the Greek adjective eleimon means “merciful”, “compassionate”.
Having compassion means “to love tenderly, to have pity, to show mercy, to be ready to help.”
God is love
The Scripture quoted at the beginning of the chapter begins with the words: “The Lord is generous and merciful.” These properties, which describe the nature of God, are found again and again throughout Scripture. God, first of all, is love. The most striking statements in Scripture about our Heavenly Father are statements of His love, mercy and compassion. Nothing else can inspire faith like this. In our revival meetings, I have seen faith grow as the truth of God's present love begins to dawn on people's minds and hearts. Not like God Maybe do, but what He thirsts to do - this is what inspires faith.
By showing compassion everywhere in healing the sick, Jesus revealed the compassionate heart of God in its true light, and crowds came to him for help. Oh, how insidiously the devil has worked to hide this glorious truth from men. He propagated the callous, illogical, hackneyed claim that the time for miracles was past, until he almost succeeded in changing the world's view of God's compassion. Modern theology extols force God's more than His compassion. Theologians are more willing to study His power than His desire use this power for the benefit of people. But the Bible rejects this approach and emphasizes His desire to use force rather than force itself. Nowhere in the Bible does it say, “God is power,” but it does say, “God is love.” No faith in God force makes His blessings available, but faith in Him Love and His will.
God's Love Overshadowed by Modern Theology
The very first words of the above text, “The Lord is generous and merciful,” means that He “loves to show favor.” This glorious fact, which shines so brightly throughout Scripture, has been so obscured by modern theology that instead of hearing, “The Lord is merciful,” we hear, “The Lord is able.” Hundreds of those in need of healing have come to us or written to us about their deliverance, based on what "the Lord is able"; however, both their teaching and lack of teaching prevented them from seeing that the Lord wants. How much faith does it take to say, “The Lord is able”? The devil knows that the Lord can, he also knows that the Lord wants, but he tried to hide this. Satan wants us to exalt the power of the Lord, because he knows that this is not a sufficient basis for faith, while the compassion and desire of the Lord is a completely sufficient basis for it.
Before we pray for the sick, we must wait and teach them the Word of God until they say, “The Lord is gracious” instead of “The Lord is able.” This is exactly what Jesus did before He healed the leper who said, “If you want, you can heal me.” He showed him His readiness so that the man could truly expect to be healed.
In the previous chapter we presented many biblical evidence the Lord's willingness to heal us now. But even when we say “The Lord is willing” and “The Lord is able,” it is still not enough. The word "wants" is too weak to fully express God's gracious attitude towards us. “He loves to be kind” (Micah 7:18). His attitude is more fully expressed in 2 Chronicles (16:9): “The eyes of the Lord run throughout the whole earth to encourage those whose hearts are fully devoted to Him.” This text shows us our Lord as not only willing, but eager to pour out His blessings abundantly on all those who need them. “The eyes of the Lord search,” or, in other words, He seeks to find opportunities to satisfy His good heart, because He “loves to be kind.”
Benevolence is the great quality of God; therefore, if you want to please Him, then remove all obstacles and allow Him to show favor to you. He is infinitely good and is eternally in a state of complete holiness to pour out blessings on all who make it possible - and that is all Christians can do. Imagine how huge Pacific Ocean rose above us all. And then think of the pressure with which it will search for any crevice in order to find a way out and spill over the whole Earth, and you will understand the picture of God's benevolent attitude towards us.
Serious challenge
Now that you have seen the foregoing, I urge you, the reader, to take that place where God's mercy can come upon you without His violating the great principles of moral government, and then stand still and feel the immeasurable manifestation of His love and mercy and blessings. , pouring on you beyond your expectations.
Cornelius took the place where God's mercy could come to him when he said to Peter: "Now we all stand before God to hear everything that God has commanded you," and he saw that God's mercy was so great that He could not wait the moment Peter finishes his sermon. Once Peter had said enough to lay the foundation for their faith, the blessing came.
God is not only Maybe, but he wishes give us in abundance everything that we ask or think about. His love is so great that it cannot be satisfied with the blessing of all the saints in the universe, but extends to all His opponents and enemies scattered throughout the earth. It seems to me that God would rather have us doubt His ability to do something than His desire to grant our request. I myself would rather have a man in trouble say to me, “Brother Bosfort, I know that you would help me if you could” (doubting my ability to help), than: “I know that you can help me, but you don’t want to do it.”
Returning to the beginning of the sermon, we read: “The Lord is generous and merciful, long-suffering and abounding in mercy.” When I think of how God fills our hearts with His tender love until, in interceding for others, our hearts are filled with the desire to express their feelings that cannot be expressed in words, I stand in good grace and am amazed at how Great is His compassion. A mother's compassion for her sick child not only gives her a desire to ease his pain, but also causes her suffering if she is powerless to help. Greek word sumpathes(translated as “to sympathize”) means “to suffer along with the sufferer.” Isaiah says, “He took our infirmities and bore our sorrows.”
Isn't it strange that this amazing fact manifestations of His mercy to the sick, so clearly seen and applied in dark times Old Testament, goes unnoticed and is cast aside in these better times when the way is opened for the fullest manifestation of his mercy to every human need.
God's merciful heart touches everyone
After what has already been said about the greatness of His compassion, let us sum it up logically: “The Lord is good to everyone and His bounty for everyone His works." In other words, He is so full of compassion that He does not look at faces when bestowing His favors. Could He (whose merciful heart, not satisfied with the blessing of His holy creatures, extends mercy also to the wicked of this world) withhold the blessings of healing from any of His obedient children?
How strange is the teaching that asserts that the sick do not seek the same healing in this age of grace that kings and prophets so desired to see, angels observed, and the afflicted received in the Middle Ages. Is God today more inclined to show the mercy of forgiveness to the children of the devil than the mercy of healing to his children? Not at all. He loves His sick and suffering child more than He loves the sinner, and God's mercy extends from eternity to eternity not only to sinners, but also to those who live in fear of Him. Just as a father takes pity on his children, so the Lord looks upon those who live in fear of Him. As high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His mercy towards those who live in fear of Him, as well as towards sinners.
A Christian under the burden of illness can say with Solomon: “There is no God like You... You keep covenant and mercy towards Your servants, who walk before You with all their hearts” (2 Chronicles 6:14).
Not just some, but “all the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth to those who keep His covenant and His testimonies” (Psalm 24:10).
Examples of God's Compassion
Now let's turn to some chapters from the Gospels where examples of God's compassion are given.
“A leper comes to Him and, begging Him and falling on his knees before Him, says to Him: If you want, you can cleanse me. Jesus, having mercy over him, stretched out his hand, touched him and said to him: I want you to be clean. After this word, the leprosy immediately left him, and he became clean... And they came to Him from everywhere” (Mark 1:40-42,45).
As you can see, it was compassion that made Christ heal this leper.
“And when Jesus heard it, he departed from there in a boat to a desert place alone; and the people, having heard about this, followed Him out of the city on foot. And Jesus went out and saw a multitude of people and took pity on them and healed their sick” (Matthew 14:13,14).
Here, as elsewhere in Scripture, He was “full of mercy” toward “all who needed healing,” and it is His compassion that is the driving force.
“And as they went out from Jericho, a great multitude followed him. And so, two blind men who were sitting by the road, hearing that Jesus was passing by, began to shout: have mercy us, Lord, Son of David! ...Jesus stopped and called them over and said: What do you want from Me? They say to Him: Lord! so that our eyes may be opened. Jesus having mercy touched their eyes; and immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him” (Matthew 20:29-34).
In this passage of Scripture, two blind men asked Him for the grace to open their eyes, and Jesus granted them the grace of healing, proving that healing is a mercy on par with forgiveness. Sick in those days, searching healing asked for mercy. Nowadays, most people think of mercy only when it comes to sinners, not knowing that His mercy also extends to the sick.
God is a merciful Father
Paul, calling God the Father of mercy, proved these words by healing all the sick on the island of Melitus. Jesus said, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy.” Job was healed when he prayed for his friends. According to Scripture, he found mercy by being merciful himself. Addressing the healing of Job, James in his epistle (5:11) writes: “The Lord is very merciful and compassionate” and continues by instructing the church: “Is anyone sick with you? Let him call the elders of the church,” etc. (see James 5:14). In other words, since “the Lord is very merciful and compassionate,” may every sick person in the Church today, as in Job’s time, also receive healing. Having satisfied all our needs, Jesus today says the same thing that he once said to the two blind men: “ What do you want from me?"
After Jesus, taking pity on the man who lived in the tombs, who, being possessed by a legion of demons, beat himself against stones and broke the chains with which he was repeatedly bound, healed him, he, “clothed and in his right mind,” rejoiced and asked the Lord for permission to follow behind Him. “But Jesus did not allow him, but said: Go home to your people and tell them what the Lord has done to you and how pardoned you. And he went and started preach in the Decapolis, what Jesus did to him. And they all marveled” (Mark 5:19,20).
A serious challenge.
The result of one person's testimony
“And a great multitude came to Him, having with them the lame, the blind, the dumb, the maimed, and many others, and they cast them down at Jesus’ feet, and He healed them. So the people marveled, seeing the dumb speaking, the maimed healthy, the lame walking, and the blind seeing; and glorified the God of Israel” (Matthew 15:30,31).
It was not the improvement of the sick, as some teach today, but the healing of the sick that caused the “multitude of the people” to “glorify the God of Israel.” Oh, how God would be glorified, and how the world would be blessed, if every minister today would present the Bible's promises of healing to the sick, and then, when all had been healed, he would in turn tell of the Lord's mercy in his Decapolis. . In a short period of time, thousands upon thousands of sick people everywhere would have received faith in Christ and His healing. And again we would hear “the multitude of the people” “glorifying the God of Israel.” The great critics and modernists would become unpopular, and the cults of false healing would not be able to lead away from the church the many people who are today caught in their network.
Witnessing God's Goodness Is Not a Sin
We read above that the man mentioned began to preach about the mercy of the Lord. Some people protest and write articles against us because we publish testimonies of those who were miraculously healed. What's the matter? Is there anything wrong with being obedient to the Lord’s command to “tell His works to men”? If Jesus died so that His mercy would reach all human needs, then of course we should strive to convey this message to people. Reading some of the articles and books published today, you might think that telling people about God's mercy is a crime.
Notice that in the Scriptures quoted above, as a result of the miraculous healings, the glory of Jesus spread: “they came to him from everywhere,” “they followed him on foot from the cities,” “great multitudes came to him.” "A bunch of!" "A bunch of!" "A bunch of!"
It's the same today. As soon as it becomes known in a city that “the same Jesus” actually heals the sick—as soon as His command to “tell the people of His works” is carried out and His mercy is preached—people begin to come from “everywhere.” I have never seen anything that could break down barriers and gather people from everywhere as much as the manifestation of God's mercy in healing the sick. We have found that as soon as people become aware of what "the same Jesus" is doing, they come - Methodists, Baptists, Catholics, Jews, poor people come, rich people come, people come from everywhere, and multitudes hear the gospel, and give their lives to God, who would never have come to the meeting if there had not been miraculous healings, showing the mercy of the Lord.
The effect of today's healings
If Christ and His apostles could not attract multitudes without miracles, does He expect more from us? At “healing services” that distract from more important issue salvation of souls, we saw more wonderful conversions in one week than in a whole year of evangelistic work for thirteen years, after which the Lord led us to preach this part of the Gospel more boldly and to a larger audience. Once our revivals took off, hundreds of people began to come every evening to give their hearts to God, and entire cities began to talk about Jesus. Other evangelists who have attended our revivals have confirmed that this works the same way in their meetings.
In Canada, Ottawa, in our last revival, which preceded the writing of this book, during the seven weeks of meetings, six thousand people came to be healed, and about twelve thousand to be saved. I think that if there had not been miracles of healing, showing the mercy of the Lord, it is unlikely that more than one thousand people would have been saved. The city and its environs were excited as never before, and the largest crowds ever assembled under one roof for religious meetings in Canada's capital filled the new Auditorium, the largest building in the city. Ten thousand people attended each meeting. Before leaving the city, we received many hundreds of written testimonies of healing from all kinds of diseases and infirmities. All glory to God!
Healing as a Powerful Tool for Evangelism
One Baptist evangelist wrote in a pamphlet he published on the subject that healing was the most powerful means of evangelism that the Lord had ever used, and that he would not return to the old ways at any price.
Let's now look at another passage that talks about the Lord's mercy.
“And Jesus went through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing all manner of sickness and all manner of disease among the people. Seeing the crowds of people, He took pity over them, that they were weary and scattered, like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples: The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; Therefore pray to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. And calling His twelve disciples, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out and to heal all manner of sickness and all manner of sickness... And He commanded them, saying, “And as you go, preach... heal the sick” (Matthew 9:35-10 :8).
Here His compassion for the sick is so clearly demonstrated that the “harvest” becomes too great for ONE reaper. His compassionate heart sought to help those who could not come to him. “Seeing the crowds of people, He took pity over them" as if He could personally minister to only a portion of them, and His compassion for the rest of the rapidly growing multitude now prompted Him to send out other workers to heal and preach. “His harvest” is not only the same today, but much larger than when He was here, and since His compassion has not changed, He wants the same reapers to reap His harvest, preaching and healing “in all the cities and villages.” His compassion demonstrated through these twelve new workers necessitated sending out seventy more with power to preach and heal. There are few workers of this kind today, while the “harvest” is much greater than then. He wants us to do everywhere exactly what He “began to do” and teach what He “began to teach.”
The Strange Revocation of a Promise Made by Christ
In the Gospel of John (14:12,13), Jesus pointedly promised that the same mercy and compassion could reach people through our prayers when He appears as our High Priest in heaven. In fact, His departure was to open the way for His compassion to be demonstrated on a much larger scale. Isaiah prophesied of Him: “He will be exalted to show mercy...” Jesus said, “It is better for you that I go.” It would be untrue if His departure abolished or even changed the exercise of compassion in healing the sick. However, many ministers today are completely reversing Christ's promise: “...He who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will also do, and greater works than these will he do” (John 14:12). They deny His promise when they teach that the time for miracles is past. Others do the same when they teach that God wants some of His godly children to remain sick for His glory, and present us with other hackneyed and unscriptural ideas.
Anyone who teaches that healing today does not belong to all those in need, as was the case in the past, is actually teaching that Christ's compassion for the sick has, at the very least, changed since His Ascension. It is even worse when it is taught that His compassion in healing the sick was completely annulled. It is a mystery to me how a minister can take such a position that hides and interferes with the manifestation of the greatest quality of the Divine - God's compassion, which is Divine love in action. When Paul made an earnest plea for sanctification, he said, “I beseech you by the grace of God,” which is the greatest quality of God.
Two important questions
Jesus said, "When He, the Spirit of Truth, comes... He will glorify Me." Could the Spirit glorify Christ among the sick by telling them that the age of miracles was a thing of the past, or that Jesus ceased His ministry to the sick after the Ascension, although He Himself promised that believers would do the same and greater things in the coming time? While Jesus is serving as High Priest, will the Spirit on earth change His ministry to the sick and suffering brethren so that He will be glorified in exactly the opposite way to how He was glorified at the Decapolis after He healed the multitudes? If so, then the common practice in some places of praying for the sick that they may have strength and patience to bear their illnesses, instead of praying the prayer of faith for their healing, is absolutely correct.
It was after He became our High Priest that He spoke seven times from heaven: “He who has ears to hear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” People say many things today that the Spirit has never said and that are the opposite of what He says. Here are some examples of what the Spirit says to glorify Christ:
“Therefore He had to become like his brothers in everything in order to be merciful (compassionate) and a faithful High Priest...” (Heb. 2:17).
We have already shown that both words - "merciful" and "compassionate" - are given in the meaning of the Greek word eleemon,
which is translated here as “merciful.” This verse has nothing to do with the mercy of Christ shown during His earthly ministry; it refers only to His ministry from heaven and to the fact that His incarnation was complete in that He could exercise mercy as our High Priest after His return to heaven. “All that Jesus began to do and teach until the day that He was taken up” is how He promised in His unfailing mercy that the things promised would continue and increase after His departure. Next, the Spirit glorifies Christ, saying that He Now sympathizes (Greek word sumpatheo translated as "to sympathize" in Hebrews 10:34) with our infirmities, that He can still have compassion (Hebrews 5:2) and that He is "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today, and forever." Let us worship Him because His compassion has not changed today, and when He looks at all our sicknesses and illnesses, He still has compassion and longs to help us.
Of course, we are grateful and grateful to God that many of those who do not believe in Divine healing do cooperate with God in such important matters, as the salvation of the soul, but how wonderful it would be if all ministers, all Christians, instead of saying that the time for miracles is past, would co-operate with the Spirit, telling the suffering how the Spirit is carrying out His ministry of glorifying the exalted Christ. Instead of being like the priests and Levites who pass by, James 5 challenges the Church to be a Good Samaritan who compassionately ministers to the physical needs of the sick by bandaging their wounds and pouring on them the balm of wine and oil (the Word of God and the Spirit of God), for He “sent His Word and healed them” by the power of the Spirit. Jesus said, “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,” because they neglected great matters of mercy and faith.
In Acts 5 we have further wonderful proof that Christ's compassion for the sick did not change, for there we can read of the great multitudes who were carried out into the streets of Jerusalem in the days after His Ascension to the Father, and “they were all healed. Here again Jesus, as our High Priest in heaven, is doing the same thing that He did before He left. He shows compassion from heaven and heals all those in need.
Even in the very last chapter of Acts we find evidence of His compassion shown from heaven when all the sick on the island of Melitus were healed. He is our High Priest, and His compassion is so great that He “lives forever to make intercession for us.”
Again, it was His compassion that caused Him to establish in the Church the gifts of faith, miracles, and healing, after He was glorified and while He is our High Priest forever and ever. After the Ascension of Christ, in the words of Rev. Stevens, "we find the gifts of healing as natural and necessary as they were in the days of the Lord's personal ministry on earth."
Any believer can pray for the sick
It was today's compassion for the sick that caused Him as our High Priest and Head of the Church to command the elders to pray the prayer of faith for the healing of any sick person in Church times (James 5:14). Rev. Stevens notes on this matter: “All preachers, teachers, writers, and all who dispense the Word of Life to the people, should maintain this direction (James 5:14) as long as the disease attacks the people.”
Even during His earthly ministry, our wonderful Lord would have made any sacrifice and curse in order to open the way for His mercy, so that it would reach His most unworthy enemies. Both the bloody sweat at Gethsemane and the terrible agony at Calvary were nothing less than a manifestation of His boundless compassion. After Judas kissed Him and delivered Him into the hands of the murderers, and Peter cut off the ear of the priest's servant, Jesus healed the ear of His enemy and told Peter to put away the sword. After this He sheathed His own sword, so to speak, when He restrained the natural impulse of His holy soul and refused to pray, although by prayer He could have called forth twelve legions of angels who would have delivered Him from the agony of the cross. But then for fallen man with all his problems of body, soul and spirit, only the throne of judgment would remain and there would be no throne of mercy. In His sacrifice for us He provided for every need of Adam's race and opened the way for His mercy to penetrate into every area of human need. Then, as now, He had compassion for all who need His presence as Giver, Peace, Victory, Shepherd, Righteousness and Healer - all blessings received through the sacrifice of the cross and revealed to us through His atoning names. His covenants, including the covenant of healing, are given to us as His mercies, and “He keeps lovingkindness and covenant with all those who love Him to the thousandth generation” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
How not to grieve the heart of Jesus
Ignorance or doubt of His love and mercy grieves the heart of Jesus. That's why He wept for Jerusalem. Many ministers these days say that we cannot needed miracles, seeing in miracles only signs that were supposed to prove the divinity of the Lord, etc. I told them: “If cancer was eating away at your head, you would need a miracle, wouldn’t you?” Today many people are completely uneducated on this issue, and it never occurs to them that there is mercy also for the sick. They never think about the gifts of healing and miracles as manifestations of Christ's compassion, they do not think about the fact that hour after hour, day after day, for three years He healed everyone who came to Him out of compassion. Are not the needs of those who suffer today the same as they were in those days? And don't they need just as much compassion as in the past?
When we think of the innumerable multitudes of the desperate, of those who are in such terrible pain that death would be a mercy for them, and to whom the doctors (after they have done everything in their power) say: “Sorry, there is nothing more we can do.” to do for you,” we realize how precious it is to know that the compassion of Christ is at every moment exactly the same as it was when manifested in His ministry of love here on earth. Find out a fact on which we can completely rely.
We have shown that physical healing is a mercy which Christ, expressing God's will, bestowed upon all who sought it; and we have a simple and clear statement: “The Lord is abundant in mercy to all (including the sick) who call on Him,” because “His mercy endures forever” and it is “from everlasting to everlasting”; He is full of mercy “in all His works.” Isn’t the question settled with these provisions of Scripture? Instead of saying that the time for a miracle has passed, say: “It is written!” “It’s written!”
Blessed are the merciful, for they will receive mercy (Matthew 5:7). What does it mean? What does it even mean to be merciful? At first glance, this is one of the easiest commandments to understand...
To be merciful is to be tolerant, kind, merciful. To be merciful means to be ready to respond to someone else's pain and problem. The psalmist exclaimed: All the ways of the Lord are mercy and truth (Ps. 24:10). God is merciful, and His mercy has no limits or conditions: “The Lord is generous and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in mercy: He is not angry until the end, and is not always indignant. He did not deal with us according to our iniquities, nor did He reward us according to our sins: for as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is the mercy of the Lord toward those who fear Him” (Ps. 102:8-11). Therefore, every believer must be merciful. Grace becomes a condition of faith, a condition of religious life.
At the same time, from the words of the Psalm we see that mercy is also forgiveness. Or rather, the ability to forgive. The ability to show mercy and love to someone who could not do this for me personally.
Here lies the biggest difficulty. How to be merciful to someone who has offended, insulted or deceived? I think that many will agree that it is pointless to harbor a grudge or desire revenge. It’s better to just forget everything and be indifferent to the offender. But will this be mercy? “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who use you and persecute you,” the Lord tells us, “so that you may be sons of your Father in heaven, for He makes His sun to rise on the evil and the good and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous” (Matthew 5:44-45).
Christ did not say, “forget about your enemies,” but called us to respond with mercy and love to evil and insults. Is this achievable for us? Achievable. Not in one second or instant. But still achievable. If Christianity is a denial of oneself for the sake of love for Christ, then this refusal is manifested precisely in mercy and mercy.
There is an amazing saint - Grand Duchess Elizaveta Feodorovna (1864-1918) is the daughter of the Grand Duke of Hesse-Darmstadt Ludwig and the granddaughter of Queen Victoria of England. She became the wife of Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov. Sergei Alexandrovich was killed by a terrorist bomb in February 1905. Three days after this, the prince’s wife went to the prison where the murderer was placed to convey to him forgiveness from herself and from her deceased husband. This is an exceptional example. But exceptions, as we know, confirm the rules. Grace is a manifestation of true greatness, depth human soul, overflowing with love. There is no place for hatred in mercy. In mercy only love is possible. “Father! forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34) - the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, nailed to the cross.
But if you look at everyday life, where and when can we show mercy, or rather, to whom? The Lord gives the answer to this question in the parable of the Good Samaritan (see Luke 10: 30-37). The Samaritan could pass by - after all, the resident of Jerusalem, beaten and wounded by robbers, was not his relative, friend, or fellow tribesman, and even moreover, the Samaritans and Jews were at enmity and did not communicate with each other. But mercy to the one who needs it here and now becomes a bridge stretching over all human discrepancies and divisions.
To show mercy—to help another person—means to overcome oneself, to leave one’s own affairs and worries in order to take on other people’s pain and grief. Help no matter what. Sometimes this is exactly what we miss so much. Why doesn't anyone see or notice my pain? How often do I myself notice the pain of others? “Give to the one who asks from you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you” (Matthew 5:42). It is these gospel words that cause greatest number questions: what to do with those who ask not for good or to harm themselves? The Lord does not set conditions for mercy and alms, He simply says “give.” Give something of yourself, help the one who asks.
Recently on one forum I saw a discussion about a request for help. A young girl, a single mother who had no means of support, asked for help. Several times in the discussion the argument was made that “it was my own fault” and “I should have thought about it.” In its own way, this has its own logic and truth. We are always to blame for our problems, not someone else. But mercy and sympathy are always above our human logic and truth. This is illustrated by the parable of prodigal son(see Luke 15:11-32) - “the gospel within the Gospel,” as it is also called. The son asks his father for his due inheritance (it was possible to receive the inheritance only after the death of his father), leaves home and spends everything he had. His father could not accept him, could not forgive him, could have done everything that logic and justice sometimes demand. But instead of all this, we again see the depth of mercy of a loving heart. When the father saw his son walking along the road to the house, he “had compassion and ran, fell on his neck and kissed him” (Luke 15:20). Perhaps mercy and logic will never be compatible. But it is in such “illogicality” that Christianity is revealed.
The Lord says that the merciful will themselves receive mercy. They will be pardoned by God. They learn a hundredfold the mercy of God towards themselves - in response to the mercy shown to others. But doesn’t it turn out that works of mercy become a kind of attempt to “buy” God’s mercy? And this has its own logic - I will do a good deed so that I myself will feel good later. But the less logic there is in good deeds, manifestations of mercy and mercy, the less the desire to “buy” or acquire benefits for ourselves dominates us. Therefore, mercy should have no reason: I show mercy not because the person in need deserves it, but precisely because he needs it.
The main thing is to learn to feel other people's need and suffering. Don’t pass by, don’t leave a good deed “for later.” But in order to learn this, you need to recognize yourself as needing God, His love and mercy, His righteousness and truth. If I need God, the gospel call to mercy is a call to rise above the harsh reality of the world. Because only mercy and mercy can overcome cruelty.
Newspaper "Saratov Panorama" No. 49 (977)
The one I couldn’t stand was Sasha from the “B” class. He will never calmly pass by: he will say something nasty, then he will swoop in from behind and tug at the briefcase as hard as he can, and then he will laugh so disgustingly.
Yesterday I returned from school. The mood is wonderful! Lessons are over, tomorrow is Sunday. And it’s spring outside, and the sweet smell of young leaves, and the sun, and puddles after yesterday’s rain. I walk around one big puddle on the road along the edge, trying not to get wet. Then I hear a noise nearby, and splashes fly from under the wheels of a bicycle right out of this puddle and right at me. And on a bicycle - Sashka.
What are you doing, really?!” I shouted to him.
He laughed and drove away, and I stood there, completely wet and almost crying - I felt so offended. I took out a handkerchief, wiped away the dirty splashes, and I myself thought about this Sashka, that he would definitely turn out to be some kind of bandit. He will grow up, do all sorts of outrages, and he will be caught and sent to prison.
And he will sit there alone. Of course, he will also repent of his iniquities and burst into bitter tears, and they will say to him: “Why are you, young man, crying now? You should have thought earlier." So I came home all upset and drenched in a puddle. My grandmother opened the door for me and almost fell in surprise.
Fathers! - he says. - Where did you get so wet?
I told her everything about Sasha here. She listened and shook her head. Then, when we sat down to dinner, I asked her:
- Grandma, will Sashka become a bandit when he grows up?
God forbid! Why are you doing this?
-And since childhood he has been offending others, acting badly, saying nasty things.
-You know, Senya, anything can happen in life. Sometimes the Lord admonishes a person, and he repents and begins to live differently. - Grandma was silent for a while, and then added: - Do you remember when we had cellars in our yard?
Of course I remember. “We still had jam there,” I answered.
“That’s it,” the grandmother continued, “it was the jam that some boys stole from us.” We climbed in through a small window. They didn’t take anything valuable – only sweets.
-So, did they get caught?
Then - no, but one thief was later found. True, several years have passed.
“How is this possible?” I was surprised.
-And here’s how: my grandfather and I are sitting in the evening, watching TV. There's a knock on the door. The grandfather opens the door, and a young boy stands on the threshold, shifts from foot to foot, and holds out money. The grandfather is perplexed, and the boy says: “When I was a boy, I robbed your cellar with my friends. We stole the jam and condensed milk from you. So you will forgive me, this is your compensation.”
Well, well! - I was surprised, - so many years have passed, but he repented and even gave the money.
-You see, I didn’t become a bandit, although in childhood I was still that ugly. After all, my grandfather and I later remembered whose boy it was. His mother lived next door, worked all day, and he messed around with the yard boys. Fatherlessness... I also remember his grandmother: she went to church and kept praying for her grandson.
And Sashka? Will he change?
-You pray for him in church tomorrow, Senya. God is merciful.
And then I thought that I probably shouldn’t have been so angry with this Sashka, and out of resentment I even put him in prison.
Grandma, maybe the Lord specially arranged it this way today so that at least someone would pray for Sashka? Probably no one... - I guessed.
Grandma came up, stroked my head and said:
- And that’s true, Senya. The Lord cares about every soul: both yours and Sashkin’s.
-Because you’re merciful?
-That's right, Senya, that's right.
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