Romans 12:8 “…if it is showing mercy, let him do it with cheerfulness.”
“Mercy” refers to having compassion, pity, or charity to another regardless of their personal merit or level of deserving.[1] One is merciful because another is in need and suffering, deserved or not.
Mercy is related to justice. It was a concept found in the ancient courtrooms. While a rule of justice would say, “a violation of the law results in a sure and certain penalty” human experience soon recognizes that there are difficult cases where a cold application of the rule of law actually results in injustice. The rule of mercy would then apply. Mercy enters and the crushing hand of blind justice is stayed, and a more fair, equitable solution is found.
Mercy is a characteristic of God. God is a person of mercy. When used of God it comes to denote grace. “He has freely bound himself to his people, so that the righteous can appeal to God’s (mercy). In the NT…God’s eleos (mercy) is often thought of in the original OT sense of “faithfulness.”[2] “Mercy” expresses God’s commitment to His independent sovereign choices of those to whom He bestows His love.
Mercy is God’s first preference. For example, in explaining the first commandment in Exodus 20:4-6, God says, You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments. Although He does judge, it is limited to few generations, whereas His love is for thousands.
Other passages show God’s priority of mercy. Isaiah 28:21 refers to his justice as his strange work (KJV). Ezekiel 33:11 states, As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Turn! Turn from your evil ways! Why will you die, O house of Israel? Even toward the wicked God does not enjoy punishment.
God’s propensity is toward mercy, not judgment or punishment. Mercy is His first desire, even though it may violate our understanding of blind justice. From the viewpoint of justice it was not fair that Jesus Christ, sinless and innocent, be judged for each and every sin of the human race. That was not justice. But because of God’s mercy to us Christ went to the Cross. Ephesians 2:4 reminds us, but because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
The Theologian Charles Hodge writes of God’s mercy:
Goodness in the scriptural sense of the term includes benevolence, love, mercy and grace. By benevolence is meant that disposition which promotes happiness. All sensitive creatures are its objects. Love includes complacency, desire, and delight, and has rational beings for its objects. Mercy is kindness exercised toward the miserable, and includes pity, compassion, forbearance and gentleness which the Scriptures so abundantly ascribe to God. Grace is love exercised toward the unworthy.[3]
While there is a gift of mercy, all believers are exhorted to be merciful. The Pharisees were cursed for their lack of mercy in Matthew 23:23.
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you tithe mint and dill and cumin, and have neglected the weightier provisions of the law: justice and mercy and faithfulness; but these are the things you should have done without neglecting the others.
Jesus told them to show fruit of righteousness. But they extended no mercy to those in need. They had no fruit. More positively, James encourages his readers to produce fruit (4:17). But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Not to be Pharisees, we are to produce the fruit of mercy.While all Christians are exhorted to be merciful, there are those who are passionate about it. They are entrusted with the gift of mercy. Some are bent to reach out to those in need, take pity upon them, and extend a loving hand to them. There are those with the gift of mercy. These are not blind to the error and sin of others, but embrace a values grid that is quick to look beyond it to extend to them a loving and helping hand. They reflect the propensity of God.
Conclusion: The person with the gift of mercy responds to others with compassion, understanding and grace, not to overlook their sin, but to point to God’s faithful provision in spite of it.
[1]Bauer, Arndt, Gingrich and Danker, Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, University of Chicago Press, 1979, p. 249.
[2]G. Kittle, Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, reprint, 1987, 2:482-84.
[3]Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., Grand Rapids, reprint 1981, 1:427.
