Blessed Are The Merciful

There will be no mercy for those who have not shown mercy to others. But if you have been merciful, God will be merciful when he judges you.

James 2:13

THERE ARE SOME verses in the Bible that always seem to surprise us when we come across them. James 2:13 is a good example of such a verse. Is it true that the mercy God will show us in eternity is somehow connected to the mercy we have shown others here on earth? Can that be right?

The answer is yes, of course. That’s what James clearly wrote in his epistle. That’s also what Jesus himself proclaimed in the Sermon on the Mount: “God blesses those who are merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Matthew 5:7). And just two chapters later, Jesus made it clear that he meant what he said: “You will be treated as you treat others. The standard you use in judging is the standard by which you will be judged” (Matthew 7:2).

Theologians have wrestled for centuries over the exact meaning of these passages and how they correspond to Jesus’ additional message of salvation through faith. But one thing is clear: one of the evidences that a person has genuinely been transformed by Jesus is that he or she demonstrates the same kind of mercy he demonstrated.

If we refuse to show mercy to others, we will be hard pressed to find mercy ourselves from God. That seems like cause for concern, at first. But this verse contains a second promise that is much more cheerful: if we commit to demonstrating mercy in this life, we also will receive mercy in the life to come.