| The Christian Life | May 1941 |
Mercy
This lesson on mercy is very timely now when the spirit of hate and vengeance is playing so important a role in shaping the plans and policies of the world.
ONE of the fundamental elements of the divine character is mercy—love. The Psalmist (Psa. 102:18-20) declares of God, “He hath looked down from the height of His sanctuary; from heaven did the Lord behold the earth; to hear the groaning of the prisoner; to loose those that are appointed to death.” And in accordance with this statement of Jehovah’s merciful interest in the human family, our Lord when stating the background of His coming to earth to suffer death as a ransom for man, says (John 3:16) “God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him might not perish, but have everlasting life.”
Unquestionably one of the grandest qualities that man can exercise, and one which brings him the greatest amount of blessing, is that of mercy, God-like compassion, benevolence. The Lord lays great stress upon this quality of mercy, declaring that whatever may be our attainments otherwise, if we do not have mercy upon others, neither will He have mercy upon us. Well do we realize that if no mercy were shown us all would be lost; and likewise, we cannot retain our present relationship with the Lord, unless His spirit of mercy dwells within us.
That the work of creation, in which God exercised His wisdom and power, caused Him no weariness, we can well understand. (Isa, 40:28) But to undo the work of the great adversary, to accomplish the restoration of the sinful, alienated race of mankind back into the liberty of the sons of God (Rom. 8:21), has required the exercise of far greater, more costly, and self-sacrificing efforts on His part.
In His mission to recover the lost sheep, the fallen human race, the Great Hero of the redemptive plan laid aside His pre-human existence and glory, humbled Himself, and became a man; not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many. It required an uncompromising love of righteousness and hatred of iniquity to resist every temptation to deviate even in the slightest degree from this determined course. Jesus’ spirit of self-sacrifice, His willingness to surrender His just rights and privileges never faltered. Even the supreme test of His loyalty and obedience in Gethsemane, where it is said by St. Paul that He cried unto Him who was able to save Him out of death, and was heard in that which He feared, found Him determined to do the Father’s will. Though He were a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered—obedience unto death. Following Gethsemane, in the brief space of about fifteen hours, our Lord was six times placed on trial and examined, four times harshly derided, three times declared innocent, twice condemned; scourged, compelled to carry His cross to the place of execution, nailed to the cross; and even there, in the excruciating agony of crucifixion, was mocked and reviled by His persecutors.
After His first trial before Caiaphas, our Lord was held awaiting an official trial by the Sanhedrin at daybreak. During this period, He was looked upon as a fit object to be insulted and made sport of by the rough soldiers. The malice of religious hatred, the narrow, brutal spite, the cold cruelty hidden in the human heart, were let loose upon Him unhindered. They spat in His face, they struck Him with rods, with closed fists and open palms. Inventing a new diversion, they blindfolded Him, then smote Him and demanded of Him to prophesy who struck Him; “and many other things spake they blasphemously against Him,” all of which were endured by the Master in silence. The official condemnation at daybreak seems to have been followed by similar shameful treatment.
When He answered nothing before Herod, the men of war arrayed Him in a gorgeous robe and amused themselves and the spectators with a mock homage. Pilate’s soldiers scourged Him, stripped Him, put on Him a purple robe, a crown of thorns, a reed in His hand, mockingly bowed the knee before Him; they spat upon Him, smote Him with their hands, with the reed they smote Him on the head. All of this He meekly and uncomplainingly endured. To what depths of wickedness can the depraved human heart descend and glory in it. What a departure was this from the world which He had made, which He had come to save, in which He had gone about doing good, healing and blessing multitudes.
JESUS STILL MERCIFUL
Our Lord was raised from the dead, exalted to the Father’s right hand, “angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto Him.” (I Pet. 3:22) He is now the Lord of the dead and the living; all judgment has been given unto Him, and authority to execute judgment. In view of His rejection has He in any wise altered His original purpose to “seek and to save that which was lost”? (Luke 19:10) So unlike the imperfect human disposition, we read that He is “the same yesterday, and today, and forever,” and that “if we believe not, yet He abideth faithful: He cannot deny Himself.” (Heb. 13:8; II Tim. 2:12) After His resurrection, what a glorious testimony He gave to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, saying to them, “Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem.”—Luke 24:46,47
Although all power in heaven and earth has been given to our risen Lord, which will, in due time, be marvelously manifested in that He will call from the grave all that are there imprisoned, yet more than this boundless power and limitless knowledge will be required in reconciling fallen mankind to God. (II Cor. 5:19) To a depraved and perverse world, steeped in darkness, enemies through wicked works, there must needs be extended great pity and compassion, tender, inexhaustible gentleness, forbearance, patience and long-suffering, to bring them back up the highway of holiness to perfection and reconciliation with God.
Jesus, like the Father, is “rich in mercy,” “abundant in mercy,” “full of mercy,” and “delights in mercy.” As a merciful High Priest, “touched with a feeling of our infirmities,” He is abundantly able not only to respond to the faintest call for help, to read the inmost secrets of every heart, but He extends a love which never fails, and will “save to the uttermost all those who come unto God through Him.”—Rom. 10:13; Rev. 2:23; Heb. 7:25
In many things we are all faulty and our Lord’s mercy is required and is extended to us. Likewise in the coming age, when knowledge is ocean-deep and world-wide, mercy will also be extended, so that a sinner dying at an hundred years will die in comparative youth—as a child. (Isa. 65:20) Those who even outwardly conform to the requirements of that age will reach the end of the thousand years, when Satan goes forth to deceive all who are not in heart-harmony with God, and such will then be destroyed. After so costly a redemption, God is not willing that any should perish; and mercy and long-suffering will be manifested until sin and the sinner are demonstrated to be inseparably connected.
CO-JUDGES MUST BE MERCIFUL
St. Paul definitely indicates that the saints are to judge the world. (I Cor. 6:2) Can this mean that our Lord, so loving and merciful, would delegate this great work to those who are less loving, less compassionate, less gentle and forbearing than He? We may be sure that such is not the case. We may be sure that all those to whom the judging of the world is to be committed in the Lord’s Kingdom, will be such as have yielded themselves to be taught of God, to be led of His spirit; those who by “empowering themselves in the Lord and in the grasp of His might,” have “grown up into Christ in all things,” so that they “can bear gently with the ignorant and erring, seeing that they themselves were once encompassed with infirmities.”—Eph. 4:15; 6:10; Heb. 5:2
MERCY DEFINED
How shall we define this mercy in which our Lord definitely assures us all His followers must abound? Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary defines mercy and compassion as follows: “That benevolence which induces a person to overlook or to treat an offender with greater forbearance than he deserves, a disposition to temper justice with mildness, and to inflict a lighter punishment than law or justice would warrant. Clemency, tenderness of heart, pity, mildness, compassion, leniency, the compassionate treatment of the unfortunate.” Compassion is defined: “Suffering with another in sympathy; a sensation of sorrow or pity excited by the distress and misfortunes of others. Pity, commiseration, kindness, tenderness, fellow-feeling, mercy, clemency.”
MERCY IN ACTION
Human compassion, mercy, sympathy, are but fragments remaining from the perfect disposition of man before the fall, and but faint reflections of the divine character. But the mercy that would exercise itself regardless of human approval, irrespective of reward, is a righteous motive, and is the outward expression or fruit of a heart in which the love of God has been shed abroad through the power of His holy Spirit. This mighty power lays hold upon the sentiments, the tongue, the affections, and rightly fostered, will permeate every channel of life. It will extend to all one’s fellow-creatures, especially to those in any degree demonstrating their desire for righteousness, and prompt even to prayer for enemies and the desire for their blessing.
Only those who discern their own need of mercy are in the right mental attitude to be merciful toward others, Strange as it may appear, often those who are in the greatest need of mercy themselves, appear to be the least ready to exercise pity toward others. Some are so deficient in this important quality that they practice unsympathetic faultfinding and criticism of others, overlook their good qualities, and, in this attitude, ruin their own happiness, and that of others. Prayer, rather than resentment, is the better reaction to the wrongs and sins of others that we cannot remedy. Anger, envy, hatred, malice, strife, are antagonistic to mercy; but by its exercise they may be driven from their hiding places and entrenched positions in the heart. But the loss of mercy will permit these evil dispositions to reassert themselves and eventually cause disaster.
It may be well that we be not obtuse when defects obtrude themselves, but we should make sure that the effects of such observation result only in an increase of the desirable quality of love. Rather than speak lightly, or uncomplimentary of others, we should seek to cover their faults unless it is necessary to speak of them to avoid injury to others. Jesus’ favorite quotation, “I desired mercy and not sacrifice,” should have taught the Pharisees, to whom it, was addressed, that self-denial and sacrifice were quite secondary to love, justice, mercy, compassion for their fellow-men; and they should rather have delighted in lending a helping hand in drawing others nearer to the Lord, to come under His instruction and influence. A complacent, self-satisfied heart and mind are displeasing to God, and a condition unready for His blessing.
MERCY VERSUS JUSTICE
It is true that God is just, but it is also true that He is loving and kind. He is spoken of as “the Father of mercies,” “rich in mercy,” “abundant in mercy,” “delighting in mercy.” In the Psalms the word “mercy” is used 85 times: praying for, praising, glorying in God’s mercy, even His “tender mercies.” Jacob said, “I am not worthy of the least of all the mercies, and of all the truth, which Thou hast shewed Thy servant.”—Gen. 32:10
In visiting chastenings upon some, and stripes, few or many, upon others, it is not that the Heavenly Father wishes to retaliate upon His servants, who, in the course of their stewardship, have been “much forgiven,” but divine wisdom and justice and mercy demand severe experiences in order that they may learn what they could not learn in any other way. “Mercy rejoiceth against judgment” (Jas. 2:13), against its execution, and delights that it can be deferred; but He “shall have judgment without mercy, that hath shewed no mercy.” It is quite proper to govern oneself by the rules of justice, but it is an oft-repeated command to view and measure others by a rule of large generosity, sympathy, forgiveness. Many, while admitting all this, and while seeking to practice it, yet do not “love mercy.” (Micah 6:8) Rather, they look for, hope for, vengeance; and while leaving the final vengeance to God, they are irked by the apparent long delay. Hence the exhortation is to the “elect of God, holy and beloved,” to “put on … bowels of mercy,” “Be ye therefore merciful as your Father in heaven,” “show mercy, with cheerfulness,” be “full of mercy.” The wicked and deceitful “remember not to show mercy.”—Luke 6:36; Col. 3:12; Rom. 12:8; Jas. 3:17; Psa. 109:16
EXAMPLES OF MERCY
Of our Heavenly Father, we read in St. Paul’s letter to Titus, that “the kindness and love of God, our Saviour toward man appeared; … according to His mercy He saved us … by His grace.”—Titus 3:4-7
Our Lord wept over Jerusalem; He was grieved, moved with compassion, stirred with emotion that the Jewish people should make such a disastrous choice, bringing upon themselves such great desolation as resulted from their rejection of Him and His message.
Abraham, in “much fear and trembling,” in “dust and ashes,” pleaded with God with much persistence for Sodom. And Moses, the man of God, learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and labored for the people of Israel all his life of 120 years without taking a recompense!
In Horeb Israel provoked God with the golden calf, and He was angry with them and with Aaron, so that He proposed to Moses that He destroy them, and offered to make of Moses a great nation. What a test was this for Moses! What an appeal to ambition, if it were hidden in his heart! Would he surmount it? He tells us that he was afraid of the anger and hot displeasure of God, yet he fell down upon his face forty days and nights to intercede for Israel and Aaron. This touching intercession that went up from the heart of Moses to God has come down through the ages: “O this people have sinned a great sin … yet now, if Thou wilt forgive their sin—and if not, blot me, I pray Thee, out of Thy Book which Thou hast written.” (Exod. 32:31,32; Deut. 9:7-29.) Again at Kadesh, the Lord would have destroyed Israel, but Moses again interceded forty days and nights, praying, “O Lord God, destroy not Thy people and Thine inheritance, which Thou hast redeemed, through Thy greatness, which Thou hast brought forth out of Egypt with a mighty hand.”
Joseph, too, was a notable example of mercy, compassion. When Jacob sent his sons to Egypt the second time, Joseph made himself known unto his brethren, and wept aloud so that the Egyptians in the house of Pharaoh heard. He said, “Come near to me, I pray you … be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life. … Thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen … and there I will nourish thee … and he kissed all his brethren, and wept upon them.”—Gen. 45
Likewise David! Anointed as a lad to kingship by Samuel, he keeps the knowledge to himself, does not despise humble daily work, and is courageous, pious, modest before Saul, and before all. Though often in danger, persecuted and hunted by Saul, he never plots, injures, or talks indiscreetly, and trustfully awaits God’s due time.
When the news of Saul’s death reached him, “he rent his clothes, mourned, and wept and fasted till eve for Saul, lamented a lamentation and bade them teach it to the children of Judah, saying, “The beauty of Israel is slain. … Ye daughters of Israel, weep over Saul. … I am distressed for thee, my brother Jonathan: very pleasant hast thou been unto me.”—II Sam. 1
Paul, once a blasphemer and persecutor, obtained mercy and writes, “Brethren, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved. I say the truth in Christ, my conscience also bearing witness in the Holy Spirit, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow of the heart, for I could wish that I myself were ‘anathema’ from Christ for my brethren’s sake.” In rebuking the Corinthians for their deflections, he says the epistle had been written “with many tears.” To the Philippians, he makes mention of some who walk after their own desires, whose end is destruction, and it caused him to give way to “weeping.”
Stephen prayed, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.” Likewise many others of the church down through the ages, having a “good and honest heart,” have faithfully served the Lord and followed in His steps. If they did not fully understand the purpose and plan of the ages, we may know that they “loved mercy,” were “full of mercy,” “full of faith,” “full of the Spirit,” “abounded in hope,” “abounded in thanksgiving,” “abounded in the work of the Lord,” in seeking to please God, “abounded yet more and more,” “prayed without ceasing,” and “Christ dwelt in them richly.”
How precious are these numerous illustrations of God’s grace and His ability to fill the humble, devoted hearts of His people with His own blessed Spirit of compassion and mercy. With the final illustrations of “man’s inhumanity to man,” before our eyes and ringing in our ears, the climax of the world’s experience with selfishness and hardness of heart now in progress, let us give great diligence in our study of these glorious qualities to see that our mental attitude, our words and deeds, proceed from a heart fully devoted to and in harmony with “the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort” and His beloved and perfect representative, our Lord Jesus.