Walk...

There are thousands of Scriptures indicating that God is merciful, and that He wants us to express His mercy towards others.

These are just a few:

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy” (Mt 5:7).

“But go and learn what this means: `I desire mercy, not sacrifice. ‘For I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’” (Mt 9:13).

“As Jesus went on from there, two blind men followed him, calling out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’” (Mt 9:27).

“If you had known what these words mean, ‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice,’ you would not have condemned the innocent” (Mt 12:7).

“A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession’” (Mt 15:22).

“‘Lord, have mercy on my son,’ he said. ‘He has seizures and is suffering greatly. He often falls into the fire or into the water’” (Mt 17:15).

“Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow-servant just as I had on you?” (Mt 18:33).

“Two blind men were sitting by the roadside, and when they heard that Jesus was going by, they shouted, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’” (Mt 20:30).

“The crowd rebuked them and told them to be quiet, but they shouted all the louder, ‘Lord, Son of David, have mercy on us!’” (Mt 20:31).

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices--mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law--justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practised the latter, without neglecting the former” (Mt 23:23).

“Jesus did not let him, but said, ‘Go home to your family and tell them how much the Lord has done for you, and how he has had mercy on you’” (Mr 5:19).

“For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all” (Ro 11:32).

Definition of Mercy (From Strongs-Greek concordance): “kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them.”

“He who has pity on the poor lends to the Lord, and that which He has given He will repay to him” (Proverb 19:17).

“He who gives to the poor will not want, but he who hides his eyes from their want will have many a curse” (Proverb 28:27).

“He who by charging excessive interest and who by unjust efforts to get gain increases his material possessions, gathers it for him to spend who is kind and generous to the poor” (Proverb 28:8).

“He judged and defended the cause of the poor and needy; then it was well. Was not all this what it means to know and recognize Me says the Lord ?” (Jeremiah 22:16).

“For to him who has shown no mercy, the judgment will be merciless, but mercy, full of glad confidence, exults victoriously over judgment.” (James 2:13)

“And you He made alive when you were dead, slain, in your trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1).

“Then the just and upright will answer Him. Lord, when did we see You hungry and gave You food, or thirsty and gave You something to drink? And when did we see You a stranger and welcomed and entertained You, or naked and clothed You? And when did we see You sick or in prison and came to visit You? And the King will reply to them, Truly I tell you, in so far as you did it for one of the least [in the estimation of men] of these My brethren, you did it for Me” (Matthew 25: 37).

Definition of Poor: (From Strongs-Greek concordance) oppressed in mind or circumstances, brow beaten, afflicted, especially in feeling, meek, poor, accepting their bondage, dangling weak thin and needy, feeble empty dried up, impoverished, not being equal.

Definition of Pity: (From Strongs-Greek concordance) to bend or stoop in kindness to an inferior; to favor, bestow , be fair, deal, give, grant , be gracious, merciful, have mercy on, have pity on, pray, make supplication.

“On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?” He answered: “`Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, `Love your neighbour as yourself.'“ “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.” But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbour?” In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he fell into the hands of robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half-dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he travelled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. `Look after him,' he said, `and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.' “Which of these three do you think was a neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise” (Luke 10:25-37).

According to the above scriptures and according to the theme of The Good Samaritan in Luke 10, when we pour ourselves out to assist and have mercy on the helpless, we are doing it to Jesus. How is that? I submit that since He and The Cross are timeless, that in some way perhaps our mind cannot totally grasp, that He is in those suffering people actually feeling their pain.

In the Good Samaritan story, Jesus defines our neighbor as the Samaritan. I think most people think that the neighbor was the dying man on the side of the road. Jesus said that the neighbor was the Samaritan, and that must be Him. It also must be Him in us doing the same thing for others because He said, “go and do likewise.” The whole point of the story was to answer the question “who is the neighbor we are supposed to love ?” He said that the two most important commands were to love The Lord your God with all your heart, soul, strength and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself.

I submit that when you break this story down, that loving The Lord and loving your neighbor is exactly the same. You can't love The Lord with all you have got, unless you are giving undeserved mercy to someone who needs His mercy.

I know its kind of a mind twister, but think about it. In the story, the religious folks who passed by had too much on their mind. They had a sermon to preach or something to do in the Temple, and they were running late. After all, “we can't miss church.” Also, had they helped this dying man on the side of the road, they would have become “unclean” and they needed to do their work in the Temple; how could they do it in an unclean state? Notice, that both the Levite and the Priest passed by on the other side of the road and really avoided this poor guy. Do you think that made their conscious feel better? You know, like, “Oh what man, I didn't see anyone?”

Maybe these religious guys should have stopped on the side of the road and asked the dying man if he went to their church, or if he was a tither, or if we was pro-life or pro-abortion. Then perhaps they could have reached the bottom line of his “problem”. After all, if he really was “living right” he wouldn't be there, right? Perhaps they should have invited him to their Temple so that he could “make a decision to live right.”

Job's friends were so sure that they were perfect and knew all the answers, and they kept telling Job that he needed to do this or that. The Bible tells us that Job was lacking some attitudes, sure, but it was his friend's task to help him, not to criticize him.

Maybe the reason that it took a Samaritan to be merciful to the hurting guy was that the Samaritan had been persecuted all of his life, called a nothing, a racial half-breed, a Godless person, uneducated, unimportant. He knew what it was like to be down, to have nobody care about him, and could not bear seeing a poor soul on the side of the road be treated that way.

If I look back over my life with The Lord, every time He leads me to repentance and to confession of a lousy attitude or sin, He does it indirectly; by showing me His love and grace, not by confronting me with a “do this or die” type of attitude.

I really like the Hebrew definition of “pity” stated above, especially the part that says “having mercy on an inferior”.

I'll never forget the real religious person that I mentioned that to about six years ago. They said, “Oh yeah, I even sit and eat with someone whose skin is not my color.” You missed the point fellow! There is only ONE who can bow to an inferior, and that is The Lord Himself. How can it be, that The Creator became a servant and washed the dust off of the feet of a bunch of grizzly fishermen, the very ones He created from the dust? So how can we bow to an inferior? Only Christ in us can do that, and we need to empty ourselves, submit to Him, and He does the work! When we see hurting people and all we want to do is to bash them with The Bible, then it is time to confess our sin and let Christ in us take over !

How much credit can we take for “making a decision for Jesus, or accepting The Lord, or becoming a Christian” if He says, “ while you were dead in your sins I gave you life.”

Dead people don't make decisions! Dead people can't obey God's laws. They need mercy and a miracle. The kindness of God leads men to repentance. Humans are seeking for unconditional love. Only God through us can provide that.

The Pharisees: Jesus called the Pharisees blind guides, blind fools, money hungry. He said, “You tithe but that you omit the more important matters like judgment and mercy and fidelity.”

I submit that this was a direct reference to Zecharaiah 7:9-13 which says, “Thus has the Lord of hosts spoken: Execute true judgment and show mercy and kindness and tender compassion every man to his brother: and oppress not the widow or the fatherless, the temporary resident or the poor; and let none of you devise or imagine or think evil against his brother in your heart. But they refused to listen and turned a rebellious and stubborn shoulder, and made heavy and dull their ears that they might not hear. Yes they made their hearts as an adamant stone or diamond point, lest they should hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets. Therefore there came great wrath from the Lord of hosts. (and the wrath of God was satisfied on His Son fully....nothing was left out). So it came to pass that as He cried and they would not hear [He said] , So they shall cry and I will not answer , says the Lord of Hosts, But I will scatter them with a whirlwind among the nations whom they know not and who know not them. Thus the land was desolate after they had gone, so that no man passed through or returned, for they had laid waste and forsaken the pleasant land.”

So many Christians today are complaining about the sin of America or the sin of our culture and society and how our culture is going down the drain if we don't turn back to God. They complain about abortion, about secularism in schools and other such matters. This is all true and cannot be denied. However, I submit that the bigger issue is that if God's people don't stop beating down everyone who is not like them, that the promise in Zecharaiah 7: 13 will come to pass: “ So they shall cry and I will not hear.”. Who? The people who get abortions No. I submit it is the one's who call themselves God's people. We will no longer hear from God unless we start exercising mercy and true judgment and begin to show kindness and tender compassion, every man to his brother. The poor folks out there don't know any better...we should!

Jesus told the Pharisees, “You filter out a gnat and gulp down a camel” (Mt 23:24).

“He has showed you O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you, but to do justly and to love kindness and mercy and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God” (Micah 6:8).

Jesus told them, “you clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but hide the inside indulgence, extortion, prey, spoil, plunder and grasping self indulgence” (Mt 23:25).

This may be hard for some, but I submit that when we demand that the poor sinners act like we do, that they live according to the law which is written on our heart and not theirs, that we are being selfish and self indulgent.

We want things for our convenience! We want a “Christian” government so that we don't have to sweat things, we want this and that law, or some law done away with.. We demand morals here and there. Even the disciples wanted to change the government, but Jesus never did.

Sure we want the best for our children, but we have the spiritual resources to live a supernatural life in this world just like Ellijah did, just like Paul did, just like Peter did and just like John did.

Our attitude should be that

1) We are going to heaven.

2) We have overcoming power for the here and now. We have it made! We need to spend ourselves to show the kindness of God to the lost; they have it hard enough without us beating them over the head! Jesus said when you fed the hungry, clothed the naked and visited those in prison that you were doing it to Me. I doubt that those folks who are hungry, naked and in prison are those who we would even have over to dinner!

ISOB Discipleship Training Manual. Larry Chkoreff (WALK) ( Mercy)

This lesson is the sole property of ISOB. It may not be altered or edited in any way. It may be reproduced only in its entirety for circulation as "freeware," without charge. All reproductions of this lesson must contain the copyright notice (i.e., "Copyright (C) 1999 by ISOB."). This lesson may not be used without the permission of ISOB for resale or the enhancement of any other product sold.