Matthew 5:7In a sense this is reaping what you sow. We receive mercy, so we are merciful to others. Psalm 18:25 says "with the merciful thou will show thyself merciful." As we forgive others their sins against us, we forgive others. The two go together.
Also as we offer mercy, or forgiveness, to others we show - maybe we even show ourselves - that we have received mercy ourselves.
It can be hard to forgive others, but there is nothing to be gained from holding a grudge or having a spirit of unforgiveness. When we do that, we do nothing but make the pain linger, we are not free yet from the hurt.
I felt things for years, but it was not until I
But I have also received mercy from God, forgiveness. It sounds so cliche to say my sins are forgiven, but think about this. In the same way that we still suffer when we hold on to bitterness when someone has wronged us, we also hold on to the pain from our own sin when we have not received forgiveness or mercy.
That is why these go together, giving and receiving mercy.
I have said the beatitudes build on each other. The person poor in spirit realizes his poverty, then mourns his condition and only then can he be comforted. From there the person is meek, recognizing his state of having been forgiven. That leads to a thirst for righteousness - which is a thirst to know more about God, not necessarily being all perfect.
And of course a natural part of all that is receiving and giving mercy to others.
Each one of them can also be seen as its own statement that stands on its own.
A word also about "blessed are." In the New Testament this word mean something like happy or well off. In good condition is the person who is poor in spirit, who mourns, etc.
No comments:
Post a Comment