Luke 6:36 Commentary and Bible Study

As so often in this sermon, the words of Christ are similar, but not quite the same as in the Sermon on the Mount. There are variations constantly. In Matthew he says, ‘Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect’; here it is, ‘Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.’ What is mercy? Mercy sees the disadvantaged and guilty state of another, but responds with love and help and kindness towards them. It wants to do good to whose who do not deserve good. It considers the misery of another and wants to relieve that misery, even though it must do so at its own expense. Mercy is so wonderful because it is given freely. No one can make any rightful claim to mercy; it is mercy just because it originates in the heart of someone who at liberty to ignore the suffering of another, but chooses not to do so. It is something beautiful which creates goodness which was not there before.Our heavenly Father is our perfect example in showing mercy. Heaven was free to ignore human suffering. Man had brought it upon himself, and therefore, far from deserving to be helped he deserved to be punished. God might well have chosen not to do anything to help the fallen race, but simply to respond in justice. No one could protest at such a response; no one could say they deserved any better. But the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit pitied us in our lost estate, and mercy acted with divine intelligence to design a way to relieve poor lost souls. ‘God having out of his mere good pleasure, from all eternity, elected some to everlasting life, did enter into a covenant of grace, to deliver them out of the estate of sin and misery, and to bring them into an estate of salvation by a Redeemer’ (Baptist Catechism). We worship God for his mercy because he gives it so freely: we might say, so unnecessarily. The exercise of mercy fills him with satisfaction because it is so good.