The word mercy is recurrent in Christianity, but do you really know what it means? Do you know where it appears in the Bible? Do you need any clarification on its importance? This and much more will be discussed in this new article.
Many images, texts and prayers make reference to God’s mercy and, although its meaning can be intuited, not everyone has to know it completely and much less its role in our religion.
If you want to learn more about this fundamental topic for Christianity, stay and read this article that we have made with much affection for you. Here, we will analyze this concept and learn what the Bible has to say about it.
Meaning of mercy in the Bible
If we look up the word mercy in language dictionaries, we find definitions similar to this one: “inclination to feel compassion for those who suffer and to offer them help”.
When you analyze the origin of the word in the languages in which the Bible was written, you can see that there are two possible translations: rachamin in Hebrew or eleos in Greek.
The first is usually defined as feeling or radiating warm affection; or also as being compassionate. However, this word appears only once in the original Bible and that is in Psalm 18:1.
“I love you, O LORD, my strength.” (Psalm 18:1 NKJV1960)
Éleos, on the other hand, takes up more of this meaning of mercy and charity with which we identify mercy. This term appears up to 80 times in the Bible, so it is not very recurrent as the Bible is very long.
As a conclusion to this, we can say that mercy appears more in acts than explicitly described, and it is a clear reference to what God wants from us: mercy is based on acts, not words.
Mercy examples in the Bible
Now we will show you some examples in which the word mercy appears explicitly in the Bible. We have chosen the most beautiful ones so you can share them with your loved ones.
“And the Lord passed by him and proclaimed, “Jehovah! The LORD! strong, merciful, and gracious; slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and truth” (Exodus 34:6).
In this verse Moses reveals the true character of God: instead of being an evil entity, the Lord is merciful and loves with all his love all his creation, including mankind.
“Righteousness and judgment are the foundation of your throne;
Mercy and truth go before your face.” (Psalm 89:14)
Here David comments on the standards of the Lord, being justice, mercy and truth. We, as their children, must also share these ideals and make them known to the world.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, hath quickened us together with Christ (by grace ye are saved)” (Ephesians 2:4-5).
Although we humans are weak and sinful, God gave Jesus to save us and forgive our sins. This is an unparalleled act of mercy and one for which we should pray and love the Lord all our lives.
“By the mercies of the LORD we are not consumed, for his mercies fail not.
They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.” (Lamentations 3:22-23)
Day after day the Lord mercifully forgives us and gives us a new opportunity to rectify and follow Him. Take advantage of this opportunity and seek Him in the Holy Scriptures, nourishing your heart and spirit.
“Good is Jehovah toward all,
And his mercies are over all his works.” (Psalms 145:9)
All the Lord’s actions are bathed in mercy, although for us it is often difficult to understand. God is all-knowing and knows what is the best action at all times.
“Know therefore that the LORD thy God is God, the faithful God, who keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments unto a thousand generations” (Deuteronomy 7:9).
The Lord will be merciful as long as we seek Him and pray for Him. Let us give thanks for all his love and let us enliven our faith every day by living for all that he has taught us.
Grace and mercy according to the Bible
There is some confusion among Christians when it comes to differentiating the concepts of grace and mercy. While they can be used equally in many contexts, there are occasions when they do not mean the same thing and we will now look at this.
God’s mercy is the fact that, even though we are sinners all our lives, the Lord allows us to live and be reconciled with Him, even giving us His son to show us this.
God’s grace must be understood as unmerited favor. The Lord favors us with kindnesses that we do not deserve and that we can never attain.
To contrast them, you must understand mercy as the fact that God prevents us from being judged and, instead, gives us by grace salvation and a happy life if we believe in Him.
Thus, there could be mercy without grace, simply if God avoided judgment, but delivered nothing else to us. However, the Lord’s love is infinite and, fortunately for us, it combines both characteristics in their maximum splendor.
Works of mercy in the Bible
There is a list of works of mercy that the Catholic Church recommends to all the faithful in order to live as God wants us to live and to celebrate that He Himself is merciful to us.
These are divided into two classes, with 7 works of mercy in each. The first are the spiritual works of mercy and the second are the corporal works of mercy.
In the spiritual works of mercy we find the following: teaching those who do not know, correcting those who are mistaken, giving good advice to those who need it, forgiving offenses, consoling those who are sad, having patience with the faults of others, and praying for the living and the dead.
On the other hand, thecorporal works of mercy are: visiting and caring for the sick, feeding the hungry, giving drink to the thirsty, giving lodging to the pilgrim, clothing the naked, redeeming the captive and burying the dead.
As you can see, the difference between one and the other is that the spiritual ones consist more in works to satisfy non-physical needs, while the corporal ones seek to supply the most basic needs of human beings.
Examples of Jesus’ mercy in the Bible
Jesus also did works of mercy during his life, teaching us those listed above. On many occasions this mercy translated into miracles that healed the sick or even gave life to those who had lost it.
It is clear that we cannot reach such a point, but the example of the Lord, having mercy on the lower strata of society at the time, should mark our lives and our actions should try to be similar.
Below, we will see some of Jesus’ acts of mercy, although they are not all of them and we have left out the most important ones, which are the teaching of the Word of God and his sacrifice on the cross to save us all.
The two blind men
On his way, Jesus met two blind men who were imploring him for healing. People despised them and wanted them to get out of their way. However, Jesus acted with mercy and healed them.
With this act, he teaches us that often acting with mercy means acting contrary to the wishes of others, but that does not mean it is wrong.
This act also hides another meaning if analyzed in more detail. Jesus is our light and due to various factors, there are many people who have failed to see this light and, therefore, to follow it. They are blind in spirit.
A great work of mercy is to show the Word of God and heal the spiritual blindness of those who need it. Do not judge those who do not follow God without first knowing why and, if you have the opportunity, show the greatness of the Lord with your own actions.
The woman of Canaan
Another well-known episode of Jesus’ mercy is the one narrated in Matthew 15:21-28 or Mark 7:24-30, in which Our Lord Jesus heals the daughter of a Canaanite woman who was said to be possessed by a demon.
In this case, it is the woman who, thanks to her faith, is rewarded with a merciful act and her daughter is healed.
Faith in God saves us from living unhappy and all we have to do is keep it alive by praying and learning from the Word of God. Receive this mercy with your faith and never lose it.
Jesus heals a paralytic
Finally, we come to Matthew 9:1-8, when a paralyzed person is brought to Jesus. Those present judged him for blaspheming and thought that Jesus would do nothing for him because of his sinful condition.
However, the Lord gave them an enormous show of mercy and, without judging the paralytic, he healed him and he began to walk. No human is free from sin and judging does not help us to make a difference.
Just as the Lord acts with mercy in the face of our sins, we should do the same with the sins of others and have mercy before we judge.
Showing mercy according to the Bible
With all this we can now begin to see why it is necessary to act mercifully in our lives and what the reward of this is.
First of all, God is merciful in its entirety and, no matter how much we err He will forgive us if we sincerely seek that forgiveness. This mercy is not attainable by any human, but it is an example for all of us to follow.
Then, thanks to Jesus we were able to understand how we can apply mercy to our daily life; especially by acting without judging other people and always with a transparent heart.
To live with mercy is to thank the Lord for his mercy, and with this good things will come into our lives.
Say a prayer of mercy
Sometimes we need to pray and ask for mercy to God our Lord and we do not know how to do it. If you find yourself in this situation, it is normal to feel overwhelmed and give up on the spot. And since we don’t want this to happen to you, we share with you a prayer on mercy so that you can pray calmly and with a little guidance:
Oh my,
Whose Mercy is infinite and whose treasures of compassion are boundless, look upon us with Your favor and increase Your Mercy within us, so that in our great anxieties we may not despair, but always, with great confidence, conform to Your Holy Will, which is identical with Your Mercy, through Our Lord Jesus Christ, King of Mercy, who with You and the Holy Spirit manifests Mercy toward us forever.
Amen.
Song of Mercy
To end this article on mercy, we leave you here a song of pure sentiment about it, made by Marcos Witt. Listen to her and feel that gratitude for all the love of God that you live with every day.
Our Lord is the guide that everyone should know and his mercy knows no bounds. Share this song with whoever you want and share with more people this beautiful, unique and divine feeling that we know as mercy.
After this beautiful song, it’s time to say goodbye for today, thanking you for reading our content. If you want to enjoy more of God’s mercy do not hesitate to continue reading biblical commentaries and reflections on our website.
We send you greetings from our hearts and may peace be with you!