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Hebrew and Greek word for mercy

Chesedh - Hebrew
This word occurs more
than 150 times in the Old
Testament and ninetenths of the time, it
refers to God and His
action.

Eleos - Greek

This word occurs more 27

times in the New
Testament
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How mercy is generally understood

Mercy is always extended

to someone who has done
wrong and is in no position
to demand anything.
Mercy is the remission of a
penalty or the relaxing of a
demand which might have
been enforced.
Mercy is to agree not to
treat a person with the
sternness and the rigorous
justice which he deserves.

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God and Mercy

Isaiah 62:12 - Mercy belongs to God.

Micah 7:18 - God delights in mercy.
Psalms 36:5 - Gods mercy is so infinite that it reaches
the heavens.
Psalms 89:1,2 - Gods mercy is so enduring that it lasts
forever.

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The mercy of God

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Mercy is the outgoing love of God and is the basis of his

relationship with man.
It is no capricious thing, changing with the moods but it is
something on which men can absolutely depend on because it
is founded on the steadfastness of God.
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God expects us to be merciful

Since God is merciful in his

relationship with us, God
wishes this to be the
characteristic of mens
relationships with one another.
Micah 6:8 - This is the whole
duty of men doing justice and
loving mercy and to walk
humbly before God.
Jesus quotes Hosea twice that
God wants mercy and not
sacrifice (Hosea 6:6, Matthew
9:13, 12:27).
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Jesus condemnation of the Pharisees

Matthew 23:23
Jesus condemns the
Pharisees for being so
meticulous in observing
all the details of the
ceremonial law but
have forgotten the
great essentials of
justice, mercy and
faith.

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A Christ-less world is a merciless world

Against the background of the known world then, Jesus

teaching on mercy becomes extremely significant for people
then were cruel and exacting in their punishment.
A Christ-less world even today is a callous world for mercy
is never a characteristic of pagan life.

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A world without Christ is a world without

mercy

Mary Slessors heart-breaking story of Calabar where the

Africans dreaded twins as being of evil omen. They were
never allowed to live, they were first killed, crushed into a
pot and flung to leopards to devour.
Sir Henry Holland, the famous medical missionary from
Quetta related how people broke out into laughter when he
told his patient that his eyes were beyond treatment.
Nazi atrocities and the Killing Fields of Cambodia (Khmer
Rouge).

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To be merciful is.

To have the same attitude to men as God has

To think of men as God thinks of them
To feel for men as God feels for them
To act towards men as God himself acts

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Mercy is the reverse of selfcenteredness

It is something which
the man who
concentrates on himself
can never possess in his
heart and can never
show in his life.
The one practising
mercy sees the needs
of others as more
claimant than his own
and the sorrows of
others more poignant
than his own.

It means the ability to

get into the shoes of
others.
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Mercy is more than a sentiment or

emotion

Mercy is not simply a

sentiment nor an emotion
- it is love in action.

The Bible does not say,

God loved the world and
stops there but God so
loves the world that He
gave His only begotten
Son (John 3:16).

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Mercy is to forget about self

Mercy is the willingness to

forget self and the
conscious effort to
identify ourselves with
others.
This makes tolerance of
others much easier.
No man has any real right
to condemn another man
until he has stood in the
same position and faced
the same temptation and
come through the same
battle.

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The promise of the Beatitude

The Beatitude ends

with the promise that
the merciful shall
obtain mercy.
Matthew 7:2 - With
what judgment you
judge, so shall you be
judged, and with what
measure you meted
out, it shall be
measured to you again.

Matthew 6:14,15 - If you forgive men their trespasses,

your heavenly Father will also forgive you but if you
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forgive not, neither will the Father forgive you.
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The unmerciful is unaware of his own

state

The one who is

unmerciful is
unaware of his own
state.
Because he cannot
picture himself as
miserable and
wretched; he feels
no need for Gods
mercy.
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The spiritual bankrupt sinner sees his

need of mercy

The person who realizes

that he is spiritually
bankrupt and who mourns
over it and who hungers and
thirsts after righteousness
will be merciful to others.

This is because he realizes

that he is in need of the
same mercy of God too and
that he is no different from
others.
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Become more like God by practising

mercy

He who has practised mercy in his life will become more

and more like God and he who has made no attempt to
practise it will become even more distant from God.

The practice of mercy is that which unites us with God,

the failure of it causes us to be separated from Him.

The ending of this Beatitude is both a promise and a

warning at the same time.

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