“With the merciful you show yourself merciful,” Psalms 18:25, ESV). God promises to show us mercy if we will be merciful to others. This reminds us of Matthew 5:7: “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy” (ESV) and Luke 6:36: “Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful” (ESV). We know we are full of faults and weaknesses and so we depend on God’s mercy to forgive them all and bless us anyway. If we make a habit of letting others have their faults and weaknesses and still blessing them, then God promises to do the same for us.
We also remember the parable of the unmerciful servant in Matthew 18:23-35. A king forgave his servant a gigantic debt but wouldn’t forgive a small debt owed to him by a fellow servant. So the king imprisoned the first servant until he paid his debt. Then Jesus says our Father will do the same to us if we don’t forgive others (18:35). This dire warning stresses the importance of being merciful.
It’s not always easy to be merciful, which is why God has to remind us to do it. But he motivates us with the encouragement that what we receive from him is far greater than anything we lose from those who harm us. Mercy from God exceeds any suffering mere humans can inflict.
