Merciful means I am concerned about lost people. I am not selfish, spiritually. I do not thank God that he saved me, and then look down on people who are unsaved, and criticise everything they do, and scorn them for their spiritual blindness and lack of understanding. To be merciful means I say to myself, I deserved nothing at all, but God has shown amazing mercy to me. I am no different to any other lost person in that I deserve nothing. I feel for the lost, and I will keep them ever in mind and pray for them, and take opportunities and serve among God’s people to try and bring the gospel to the lost. There was a pastor telling me, and he was very sad about it, but in his church, which was a very large one, people were not very merciful to the unsaved. They were good people, they were dear people, very earnest and sincere people, but if he saw a stranger coming in at the back of the church, after giving the benediction he would race down the aisle to try and catch that stranger before he went out of the church, because sadly he knew that none of his congregation would speak to that person. Immediately they would turn to each other to their own friends for Christian fellowship; they would seek out those they knew. It is sad when you see that in churches. All the young people cluster together and ignore the older people. The older people relate together and ignore the young people. ‘Blessed are the merciful.’ Those who are concerned for the strangers, for the lost, for other believers, not just staying with friends and family – there is a special blessing for you. Show mercy to the lonely. We must speak to our peer group and we must have a special affection for our family and fellowship with particular friends, but if we restrict ourselves to that we lose a blessing. So out with the cliques. Be concerned across the board.
We should sometimes cast our minds back and think of all the mercy that we have received. We can probably all remember that when we were seeking the Lord some people were incredibly patient towards us. When we would not listen and when brought up all sorts of awkward questions, they were so patient and they continued to pray for us. Maybe you were offensive to them, maybe you gave them a hard time. Maybe you insulted them. What patience and compassion were shown to you! We must show that to others also, chiefly in the interests of their souls. Indeed it is a condition that if we are not merciful, then we cannot be shown blessing and mercy and kindness by God. There is the great parable of the Lord about the man who was forgiven an enormous debt, and he would not forgive somebody who owed him a far lesser debt. His lord eventually went back on the relief, his release from the debt, and judged him very harshly. It teaches us this – as we have received mercy from God and very often from many Christian people, so we must be merciful to others, and particularly concerned about their lost state, or else God will withhold much blessing and instrumentality and kindness from us.
Feel sorry for people; identify with them, even if they are doing wrong things. We must be tolerant and not harbour resentment. People offend us and, yes, some things need to be dealt with, but others must be overlooked. Mercy is also able to forbear with those who irritate you. Maybe they have inadequacies which make you impatient. You also have inadequacies. Don’t expect too much of people; be an encourager. Be merciful to the sad. Some are always sad and we think it must be their fault. Maybe, but some have an extra burden of this. The buoyant should hold up the sad. Mercy protects and does not listen to gossip or support the assassination of character. Mercy covers over so much.