Matt 5:1–12 — The Dynamics of Kingdom Righteousness: Beatitude 5

The fifth Beatitude says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (Matt. 5:7). We will consider the meaning of mercy, the flow of mercy, and the difficulties of mercy.

The Meaning of Mercy

What does it mean to be merciful? Words such as “kind,” “loving,” and “gracious” come to mind. “Compassionate” and “sympathetic” bring us closer. I think the best definition is a readiness to forgive, showing others the mercy God has shown us.

That phrase “ready to forgive” is important. If someone has not acknowledged his sin, we may not yet be able to reconcile with him. Nevertheless, we must have a merciful heart, ready to forgive. We will return to that distinction.

God’s Mercy as a Free Decision

The best way to understand mercy is to begin with God’s mercy. We must be careful, however, about calling mercy an attribute of God in the same sense as his eternity, immutability, holiness, or justice. Those attributes are necessary to his being. God could not be God if he were not eternal or perfectly holy.

The Book of Common Prayer speaks of God as the one “whose property is always to have mercy.” I do not think that is accurate if it means that mercy is a necessary property of his being. Mercy is God’s free decision to show compassion to those whom he chooses.

In Romans 9:15, while discussing election, Paul quotes God’s declaration to Moses in Exodus 33:19: “I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will show mercy on whom I will show mercy.” God’s mercy, then, is a voluntary act of his will. He was under no obligation to show mercy to anyone. Had he allowed Adam and Eve and all their descendants to remain in sin and condemnation, he would have been perfectly just.

Yet he has chosen to show mercy to us. It is a gracious act of God, freely bestowed. This helps us understand what Jesus means when he calls us merciful: we are to show mercy in a way that reflects God’s free and gracious decision to show mercy.

Mercy to a Rebellious People

Israel’s history repeatedly displays this mercy. Though the nation rebelled, God had compassion and chose not to destroy it.

Consider the golden calf. While Moses was on the mountain receiving the Ten Commandments, the people became impatient and turned to Aaron. They surrendered their jewelry to make an idol, abandoning faithfulness to the God who had delivered them. At the heart of their covenant relationship was the command to worship him alone, yet they broke that covenant almost immediately.

God threatened to destroy them, but Moses interceded. He appealed to God’s honor among the nations: would they say that the Lord had brought Israel out of Egypt only because he was unable to save them? God showed mercy, and afterward he revealed himself to Moses:

The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness. (Exod. 34:6)

This declaration became something like a confession of faith for Israel, comparable to the Shema in Deuteronomy: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one.” The revelation of God’s abounding steadfast love came in the aftermath of Israel’s great unfaithfulness.

The pattern continued during the judges. Israel turned to false gods, repented under judgment, and received a deliverer whom God raised up. For a time the people remained faithful, then fell away again. Again and again, God showed mercy.

Eventually Israel’s unfaithfulness led to exile in Babylon. Yet even there the prophets announced mercy. Isaiah 60:10 says, “In my wrath I struck you, but in my favor I have had mercy on you.” Jeremiah 33:26 promises, “I will restore their fortunes and will have mercy on them.”

The fullness of this mercy comes in Christ. Ephesians 2:4–6 says:

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

Notice the setting in which God acts. Israel worshiped the golden calf; later, the nation suffered exile because of its apostasy. In Ephesians, Paul describes our condition as death in trespasses. In each case, mercy comes to people who have no claim upon it. God does not find deserving people and reward them. He shows compassion to sinners and, in Christ, makes the spiritually dead alive.

This is the mercy we ourselves have received. God has joined us to Christ, raised us with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places. When we ask what it means to be merciful, we must keep that gracious action before us. Our understanding begins with what God has freely done for us.

Choosing Mercy Instead of Punishment

God’s mercy is a free and gracious decision to show compassion to those who do not deserve it. It stands in contrast to deserved punishment. Israel deserved destruction for its apostasy; we deserved condemnation for our sins. Yet God, rich in mercy, provided atonement so that we might be saved through Christ.

This helps us understand our own calling. Mercy is more than an emotion. We must choose it. Rather than punishing someone—whether directly or by withholding kindness and maintaining our anger—we decide to release the offense and be ready to forgive.

Mercy is a voluntary decision to forgo punishment and freely forgive. But how does that mercy come to characterize our lives?

The Flow of Mercy

Jesus says that the merciful “shall receive mercy.” We must not read this as though our merciful conduct earns God’s mercy. We are not saved through good works, including the good work of showing compassion.

Mercy Givers Are Mercy Receivers

I understand the future tense here as expressing a general principle rather than pointing to an event at the final judgment. Jesus uses the future tense this way elsewhere in the Sermon on the Mount. Matthew 6:14, for example, says, “If you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”

That cannot mean that we obtain God’s forgiveness on the basis of forgiving others. We are saved by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ alone. Jesus is describing the relationship between receiving mercy and giving it.

We might paraphrase the Beatitude: Blessed are the merciful, for mercy givers are mercy receivers.

Receiving God’s mercy is a present experience of salvation. Throughout Scripture, God’s people seek and receive it in this life. David begins his confession in Psalm 51 by pleading, “Have mercy on me, O God,” asking that his transgressions be blotted out. He seeks pardon then and there.

The Gospels show the same pattern. The Syrophoenician woman cries for mercy because her daughter is oppressed by a demon. The two blind men outside Jericho cry, “Have mercy on us, O Lord,” seeking their sight. Jesus responds to such cries with healing, forgiveness, and blessing.

Paul and Peter likewise speak of mercy as something God gives his people in salvation now. Romans 9 explains why the elect come to Christ in faith: “It depends not on human will or exertion, but on God, who has mercy” (v. 16). They are “vessels of mercy” because God’s grace brings them to faith.

In Romans 11:30–31, Paul tells the Gentiles that they were once disobedient to God but have now received mercy through the Jews’ disobedience. By disobedience he means unbelief, a refusal to believe the gospel. The Jews, in turn, may now receive mercy through the mercy shown to the Gentiles. Notice the repeated emphasis on “now.” Mercy is experienced in this life as God brings people to faith.

Peter says the same thing: “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy” (1 Pet. 2:10). Their faith in Christ testifies that they have received mercy.

For these reasons, I do not take “shall receive mercy” in the fifth Beatitude as a reference to a future event at the final judgment. It expresses the principle that those who give mercy are those who receive it. We already know God’s mercy through faith in Christ. That present experience is essential to understanding the connection Jesus makes between receiving compassion and showing it.

The Unforgiving Servant

You may wonder whether this interpretation brings other biblical teachings into the verse rather than explaining Jesus’ own words. Yet Jesus himself develops the connection in the parable of the unforgiving servant in Matthew 18:21–35.

Peter asks how often he should forgive a brother who sins against him. Would seven times be enough? Jesus answers, “Seventy-seven times,” and tells a parable about a king settling accounts with his servants.

One servant owes ten thousand talents, an enormous sum. Unable to pay, he faces being sold into slavery along with his wife and children. He falls on his knees and pleads for patience, promising to repay everything. Out of pity, his master releases him and forgives the entire debt.

That same servant then finds a fellow servant who owes him a hundred denarii, a small sum by comparison. He seizes him by the throat and demands payment. The fellow servant makes the same appeal for patience, but the man refuses and has him imprisoned until the debt is paid.

The other servants are distressed and report what happened. The master summons the unforgiving servant and says:

You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?

The key is that final phrase: “As I had mercy on you” (v. 33). The master does not say that the servant needed to forgive the smaller debt in order to obtain release from his own. The great debt had already been forgiven. His treatment of his fellow servant contradicted the mercy he himself had received.

Someone deeply conscious of God’s mercy will have a merciful heart toward others. When that heart of mercy is absent, we have forgotten how much God has shown us. Jesus directs our attention back to his generosity so that our treatment of one another will flow from it.

Mercy flows from God to us, and then from us to others. We have no mercy to give that we have not first received from God. This is why we must be merciful.

Ephesians 4:32 makes the same point: “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you.” Colossians 3:13 says, “As the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.”

Mercy within the Body of Christ

Think of a battery with positive and negative terminals. For current to flow, the circuit must allow it both to enter and to leave. In a similar way, receiving mercy and giving mercy belong together.

If you are not a giver of mercy, perhaps you do not see yourself as someone who needs mercy. A merciful person remains conscious of how much God has already forgiven. The parable directs us back to that awareness.

There is a further point to consider. Jesus does not explicitly say from whom the merciful receive mercy. I have focused primarily on God, but there is also a secondary application to our relationships with one another.

Generally, a kind, tenderhearted person who is ready to forgive is more likely to receive kindness and mercy in return. This is not an absolute rule, nor a principle of karma. It describes a pattern that should characterize the body of Christ.

The world at large does not share this life of the Spirit, but within the fellowship of believers we should treat one another as Christ has treated us. Mercifulness is a fruit of the Spirit, and in that sense the Spirit’s fruit is contagious. When we show mercy and kindness, we encourage others to do the same. We learn together to love more deeply and grow as Christ’s body.

To paraphrase the Beatitude: Being a Christian means having received mercy and freely showing it in turn. This goes against our flesh and the world’s insistence on exacting what is due, yet count it all joy. The merciful have received God’s mercy and will, in turn, receive mercy from others. Mercy givers are mercy receivers.

The Difficulties of Mercy

Mercy is a beautiful fruit of the Spirit, and we want to experience more of it in the church. Yet applying it raises difficult questions.

Must We Forgive Someone Who Never Apologizes?

We need to distinguish two senses of “forgive.” The first involves telling someone that we forgive him and restoring the relationship. Reconciliation cannot happen entirely on one side. Whether in a marriage, a church, or another relationship, it requires the wrongdoer to acknowledge the offense.

If someone remains oblivious to his sin, unrepentant and unwilling to acknowledge it, I do not believe we are obligated to declare the relationship reconciled. But there is another sense of forgiveness in which we do have an obligation: we must remain ready and willing to forgive.

Even while the other person’s heart remains hard, we should pray for a spirit that is prepared to forgive when the opportunity comes. We can release our anger without waiting for reconciliation. We need not hold on to bitterness simply because the other person has not come to us.

In this inward sense, forgiveness can be unilateral. The relationship may still be broken, and a genuine reconciliation may not yet be possible. Nevertheless, your own heart can be ready. You can ask the Lord to free you from the desire to punish the person emotionally and to make you willing to welcome repentance if it comes. This is the distinction behind my definition of mercy as a readiness to forgive.

God took the initiative in mercy toward us. Romans 5 reminds us that while we were still sinners and enemies, he reconciled us through the death of his Son. We did not first make ourselves worthy of his compassion.

Releasing anger and remaining ready to forgive someone who refuses to apologize is among the hardest forms of mercy. Yet it is profoundly Godlike. What a blessing to imitate him in this way. Our hearts can be softened toward others only as we remember how much he has forgiven us.

An ordinary driving incident illustrates this. Someone cuts you off, and there is no opportunity for a conversation, apology, or reconciliation. Stopping to confront him would likely make matters worse. Yet you can still release your anger.

I find it helpful to remember how often I have made the same mistake. I have changed lanes without checking my blind spot and upset the driver behind me. Perhaps this driver has simply done what I have done. He may have acted deliberately, but I can give him the benefit of the doubt.

Remembering my own failures helps the anger subside and makes room for compassion. We have sinned against others, yet God has shown us mercy. That recognition helps us grow in readiness to forgive.

Does Mercy Injure the Victim Again?

Imagine a man who deliberately assaults someone, inflicting severe bodily harm. He is arrested and brought before a judge. The judge decides to be merciful and releases him without punishment.

Would that not injure the victim a second time? The victim is already recovering from a grave assault; now he suffers the additional blow of seeing the offender escape justice. Mercy applied in this way can compound an injury.

When reading the Sermon on the Mount, we must distinguish Christ’s spiritual kingdom from the civil kingdom. The spiritual kingdom is expressed in the church, where we share the grace and forgiveness of Christ. The civil kingdom belongs to God’s common-grace ordering of society. He establishes government and civil authority to restrain evil and criminal conduct.

Confusing these kingdoms leads to mistaken applications of Jesus’ teaching. During the Reformation, the Anabaptists read the command to turn the other cheek as excluding self-defense and participation in military or police work involving force. In my judgment, that applies teaching about the spiritual kingdom directly to civil responsibilities without making the necessary distinction.

Jesus announces the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of grace into which his disciples are called. Personal mercy within that kingdom is not contrary to civil justice. A judge should not use “Blessed are the merciful” as a reason to release a violent offender without appropriate consequences. Doing so confuses the two kingdoms and can indeed inflict a second injury.

Neither does Jesus forbid us to pursue proper channels when wrong is done. We may involve the police, courts, or church elders, as appropriate. Yet even as we seek their help, we should maintain personal readiness to forgive. We seek justice or resolution with a merciful spirit, rather than pursuing personal revenge.

What about Church Discipline?

This raises a related question within the spiritual kingdom itself. If we should always show mercy to our brothers and sisters, is church discipline still possible?

Jesus himself answers that question in Matthew 18. Before the parable of the unforgiving servant, he instructs disciples to confront a brother who sins, to bring others if he refuses to listen, and finally to tell the church. The same Lord who blesses the merciful also commands church discipline.

We cannot isolate this Beatitude and use it to cancel his other teaching. Discipline must, however, be exercised with gentleness and mercy. Galatians 6:1 says, “Brothers, if anyone is caught in any transgression, you who are spiritual should restore him in a spirit of gentleness.”

When you approach a brother about his sin, do not come in anger or a desire for revenge. Seek reconciliation, remembering your own faults and your own need of mercy.

The aim of church discipline is restoration, never merely punishment or making someone feel excluded from God’s grace. We want the person to acknowledge and repent of his sin. Excommunication should not follow simply because someone has sinned, but because he persists without repentance, refusing to acknowledge his need of forgiveness.

Second Corinthians 2 gives a helpful example. A man had been disciplined for a grave sin. He may have been the man mentioned in 1 Corinthians who was living with his stepmother, though we cannot be certain. Whoever he was, he had repented.

Paul therefore tells the Corinthians to forgive him and reaffirm their love for him, lest he be overwhelmed by sorrow. Paul warns that we must not be ignorant of Satan’s designs. An unforgiving response to a repentant person can become an occasion for bitterness toward the church and damage to faith.

Looking for the Fruits of Repentance

The goal of restoration does not mean that the church must restore someone fully the moment he says, “I am sorry.” Depending on the seriousness of the sin, its public character, and the honor of Christ, the elders may need time to examine the fruits of repentance.

Is the person sincerely turning from sin, or merely saying the expected words to escape consequences? John the Baptist called people to bear fruit in keeping with repentance. Proverbs 28:13 says, “Whoever conceals his transgressions will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will obtain mercy.”

Notice that the proverb speaks of confessing and forsaking sin. I take its primary application here to concern mercy within the community of God’s people. God’s forgiveness rests freely on Christ’s work; the fruits of repentance result from faith and are not the basis of that forgiveness. Yet in the community, those fruits matter as we discern whether a profession of repentance is genuine.

I have seen cases in which a person needed to abstain from Communion for a time because of a sin’s gravity and public scandal, even while acknowledging that it was wrong. Such situations are painful. Nevertheless, it may be necessary to examine whether the person is truly forsaking the sin rather than immediately treating everything as resolved.

Mercy and church discipline can go together. The church extends Christ’s love, gospel mercy, and forgiveness while also protecting his honor and addressing wrongs that must not be allowed to fester. The elders are not choosing between compassion and concern for the truth. They must extend the mercy of the gospel in a way that also takes seriously the sin, its effects upon the church, and the need for genuine repentance.

These are three difficulties I have encountered in applying mercy, and there are others. I hope these distinctions help us practice it faithfully. Yet we should return to the central truth: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” Mercy givers are mercy receivers.