Blessed Are the Merciful

October 19, 2018

Blessed Are the Merciful

“Blessed are the merciful,

    for they will be shown mercy.”

Matthew 5:7

As we have already come to see, in the Beatitudes Jesus is taking us much deeper than we imagined. Jesus said God blesses the merciful and this takes us to a deeper understanding of forgiveness. There are three levels at which we can understand Christian forgiveness.

Terry Anderson, the American journalist who was captured in Lebanon in 1985 and held hostage by Hezbollah militants until 1991, models the first level of forgiveness.  In an interview after his release from captivity, he was asked whether he could ever forgive his captors. He responded, “I’m a Christian, It’s required of me that I forgive, no matter how hard it may be.” (Time, December 16, 1991) Anderson’s statement seems to echo the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Colossians: “Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others” (Colossians 3:13b NLT). Anderson believed he had to forgive because the Lord commanded it. This is the first level of forgiveness.

However, Jesus wants us to go deeper. As we mature in Christ, we will understand that it is in our best interest to forgive. We realize our Heavenly Father really does know best. We come to understand why mercy is an essential part of God’s triad of purpose for us: “And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8). We learn that in the absence of forgiveness all that is left are bitterness, anger and revenge.  We learn that when we practice forgiveness, when we extend mercy, our lives physically, emotionally and spiritually are enhanced. It is in our best interest to forgive, so we think of forgiveness not as something we have to do, but as something we get to do. This is the second level of forgiveness.

An interesting dynamic of the life in Christ is that the closer we get to Christ, the more we become aware of our sin. Before we became a follower of Christ, we took no notice of even the most egregious sins. The more we are persuaded that the Father of our Lord is quite fond of us, the more we realize the furious longing of Abba for us, the more aware we are of even the slightest, unintentional sin. At the thought of Jesus’ continued love and forgiveness of us, we respond much like the beautiful woman at Simon the Pharisee’s house, “As she stood behind him at his feet weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed them and poured perfume on them.” (Luke 7:38). Thus we find ourselves in the third level of forgiveness. We become like God and extend mercy because we want to.

My Takeaway: In this third level of forgiveness, we are delighted with what God is doing in our life and the desire of our heart is to share it with others. The promise of God in 2 Corinthians 3:16-18 becomes our reality.

“Nothing between us and God, our faces shining with the brightness of his face. And so we are transfigured much like the Messiah, our lives gradually becoming brighter and more beautiful as God enters our lives and we become like him.” (The Message)

NOTE: I learned on October 14, 2018 that Eugene Peterson, the author / translator of The Message is now under hospice care. Please say a prayer for this might man of God who gave us this wonderful gift – The Message Bible translation.

Sē’lah

Alex

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(Selah is a word that appears in the Book of Psalms that I often use as the Complimentary Closing in my correspondence. Its meaning, as I use the word, is to pause and think about these things.)

These meditations are written by Alex M. Knight as he seeks the life in Christ as his way of life.  The meditations are published on the BLOG, http://seekingthelifeinchrist.blogspot.com/ and they are also distributed on the Constant Contact email server. You may subscribe to this email service by sending an email to: amkrom812@gmail.com. The BLOG is also available on Amazon Kindle, by subscription.

Publications by Alex M. Knight:

·        Seeking the Life in Christ, Meditations on the New Testament and Psalms has been published and is now available at Amazon.com in paperback and Kindle.

·        The second edition of First Think – Then Pray is available on Amazon Kindle.

·        Meditations on The Story of My Life as told by Jesus Christ has been released as an e-book on Amazon Kindle.

Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.