Blessed Are the Merciful

Matthew 5:7

Blessed are the merciful,

For they shall obtain mercy.

Mercy is an important subject. Godly wisdom is full of mercy:

“But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.” (James 3:17)

Mercy’s not only important but also complex and profound. But I’m just going to skim the surface. I would like to meditate on just a few points about mercy and this beatitude.


The first is what mercy is, or what a merciful person is like. The point of Matthew 9:10-13 is that mercy is not sacrifice:

¹⁰ Now it happened, as Jesus sat at the table in the house, that behold, many tax collectors and sinners came and sat down with Him and His disciples. ¹¹ And when the Pharisees saw it, they said to His disciples, “Why does your Teacher eat with tax collectors and sinners?”
¹² When Jesus heard that, He said to them, “Those who are well have no need of a physician, but those who are sick. ¹³ But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire mercy and not sacrifice.’ For I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners, to repentance.”

God does not want people who do their religious duties reluctantly, merely formal or perfunctory. He wants people to be alive in their hearts. He wants them to have feelings of affection for Him and mercy for each other.

The Pharisees saw Jesus being ceremonially contaminated by sitting with sinners. Jesus saw Himself as a physician, giving medicine to the sick. The Pharisees were enslaved to triviality. They were more concerned about ceremonial cleanness than eternal sickness. So the opposite of mercy is a concern for trivia.

This is also evident in Matthew 23:23:

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.

Again, the Pharisees were concerned with trivialities. That’s unmerciful. So mercy is a war against the bondage of trivial religious and secular matters, and a devotion to the weightier matters.

Another Biblical reference to mercy is found in the parable of the Good Samaritan, in Luke 10:25-37. The Samaritan was merciful. There are four evidences of the mercy of the Samaritan in this parable.

First, he sees distress. Verse 33: “But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed, came where he was.”

Second, he responds with compassion. Verse 33: “And when he saw him, he had compassion.”

Thirdly, he attempts to relieve the distress. Verse 34: “So he went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine; and he set him on his own animal, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.”

Fourthly, he was an enemy of the Jew. Samaritans married non-Jews. They worshipped differently than the Jews. They were hated by the Israelites.

So, put these four points together, and mercy is an eye for distress, a heart of pity, and a hand of help, in spite of hatred. That’s mercy.

A second point I want to meditate on is if a merciful person should always show mercy. There can be situations in life where mercy seems wrong. For instance, an employer pays good wages for excellent work, but mercilessly dismisses employees who do not put effort into their work. A legislator must create and strictly enforce unmerciful laws for unlawful acts. And again, an elder in the church must excommunicate a member for unlawful sin. Is that mercy?

Just as God is both a God of mercy and a God of justice, we too must dispense these two at different times. Sometimes justice must be dispensed. Knowing when involves knowing Christ. There are no rules in Scripture dictating every situation. Pray. Grow in wisdom by reading God’s Word.

So no, we do not always need to show mercy. But even in our justice mercy should be shown. Even in your dispensing of justice, you should be perceptive of a person’s distress, feeling pity for him, and making an effort to see good done to him. Even if it’s your enemy.

Now the final thing I wish to meditate on is what about the second half of the verse, “For they shall obtain mercy”? Why will only merciful people find mercy from God on the final day, of salvation is by grace through faith?

Matthew 5:7 clearly says that in the age to come, the people who receive mercy are those who have been merciful. Isn’t this salvation by works? Aren’t we earning the mercy of God?

But earned mercy is a contradiction. How can God’s mercy be merciful if we have earned it? That would turn it into a deserved wage! That’s not grace.

God will give you mercy at the end because your faith caused you to be merciful to others. You relied on the Word and Spirit to heal you and they made you merciful to others. That’s why God will give you mercy.

Therefore, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.”

See the full series on The Beatitudes here.