Merciful Like God

Mercy is probably one of the most common attributes associated with Christianity. It was God’s mercy which prompted Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross to save our sins. God’s mercy is new every morning. It is one of His least disputed characteristics, but how often do we imitate it? We acknowledge that God needs to be merciful, but often we don’t want to be merciful ourselves. Yet it is one of the attributes of God that we need to copy, that we need to show to those around us. How do we do that?

Ephesians 2:3-7 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest. But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, 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, so that in the ages to come He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.

This is one of my favorite passages because it puts the whole Gospel in just a few verses. God is rich in mercy. Let that sink in. If mercy was money, God would be richer than Bill Gates. He has an overwhelming supply ready to give to any and all who will receive it. It causes Him to forgive our sins, to expunge the debt we owe. But mercy isn’t free. It came at great cost. Jesus paid for mercy with every drop of blood He possessed, all so we could be forgiven and spend eternity with Him. That is love in its fullest, greatest extent.

As imitators of God, chosen to be His light to the world, we need to exemplify that kind of mercy to others. Being given mercy didn’t cost us a thing. Showing others mercy will cost us dearly, but no more than it cost our Savior to extend same that mercy to us. We can have no other response that to extend His mercy to others.

In Matthew 18, Jesus tells a story about a servant who was forgiven an enormous debt, too great for him to ever repay, and was released from the possibility of becoming a slave to pay it off. He was of course grateful to his master for his kindness, but it did not reach his heart. The wicked servant turned around and had a fellow servant thrown in prison for not paying back a debt of a day’s wages. When the master heard of it, he had the first servant sold as a slave because he refused to extend the same mercy he had been given. Jesus said that is how it will be with us. If we do not forgive others, we will not be forgiven. Part of sharing God’s mercy and showing it to others is to forgive, no matter how great the transgression.

I will not sugar coat the truth, this is one of the hardest things to do for the greater the sin against us, the harder it is to forgive it, and I don’t pretend to be an expert at it. I am struggling with this myself, fighting to forgive those who have wounded me deeply, repeatedly. It is a process that can take years, but one we are commanded to endeavor. Frankly it is only possible through the love of God. We can’t forgive others until we realize how much we have been forgiven, until we have been filled with God’s love to the point that it overflows through us to others. We need to seek God’s help in having mercy. One thing about mercy is that it is undeserved. We don’t deserve God’s mercy, and others don’t deserve ours. God gives it to us even though we could never deserve it, and we are commanded to give it to others even though they don’t deserve it. It is an act of love not justice.

What do we do until then? In the words of my dear friend, “fake it ‘til you feel it.” God does not say, “You only have to forgive if you feel like it.” Greater forgiveness comes when we forgive even though we don’t feel it. And we are commanded to do it whether we feel it or not. Forgiveness is an action, a decision.

In her book “It’s Not Supposed To Be This Way”, Lysa TerKeurst suggests making a moment, documenting when we forgive someone so that when we are tempted to let it bother us again we can look at our calendar or whatever and remind ourselves that we have already let that go and to not dwell on it. Like I said, it’s a process. It takes time. For those dealing with very deep wounds it may be wise to seek counseling. It is also worth noting that forgiveness is not the same as trust. Sometimes we can forgive someone and let things go back to normal, but other times that is not wise, cases of abuse for example.

Another aspect of mercy is kindness. We show mercy to others when we are kind without cause, when they haven’t been kind to us. Mercy is sometimes synonymous with love, compassion or pity. When we forgive someone we are also showing them kindness and love. In order for us to show others mercy, we must do more than forgive. We must go beyond ourselves and be kind, loving and compassionate.

Jude 22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

And have mercy on some, who are doubting;

God’s mercy is multi-faceted, and so must ours be. We must forgive others with love and kindness, having compassion for what they are going through rather than remaining focused on ourselves. We should watch how we respond, making sure that our words are seasoned with kindness and love, even if we don’t feel it.

Are you a living example of mercy to others? Who can you show mercy to this week?