Welcome to this weeks blog! This week we are going to be looking at the fifth part of our Beatitudes series Matthew 5:7.
Matthew 5:7
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
The concept of this verse is that if we show mercy to others then we will have mercy shown to us, almost like the old saying of 'treat others how you would like to be treated'.
When we look at the word 'mercy' or 'merciful' in Greek, eleeo (el-eh-eh'-o), we find that the definition of this word is: to show compassion by word of deed, specifically by divine grace or to have compassion on. This means that mercy an active concept, something that requires some form of action, whether that be verbal or physical. To even make it as far as this Beatitude we have already received mercy by the previous verses, in the sense that we have become aware of God's graciousness in terms of our poverty of spirit, mourning over our condition, receiving meekness and becoming hungry for righteousness. With that in mind, we can see that the expectation here is that we will have been shown mercy ourselves before being expected to show it to others. Jesus model's all that we should strive to be and we should in turn model the mercy that He shows to us.
When we look throughout the Bible we find that many of the Biblical authors write of God's mercy. For example, David was shown mercy by God despite his sins. When you look at David's story, he shows Saul great mercy himself and in turn God honours David's merciful attitude by showing mercy to Him when he sins. This a great example of how the merciful will be and are shown mercy.
I pray that this week we might be merciful in our thoughts and actions and then if the opportunity arises we might be an example of the merciful attitude that Christ models to us.
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