|
THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 7, NUMBER 52, DECEMBER 30, 2007 “BLESSED ARE THE MERCIFUL” The fifth Beatitude given in the Sermon on the Mount was “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.” Jesus attached a great, and often overlooked significance to mercy. So frequently the Lord would quote Hosea 6:6, “For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.” Many of the Jewish religious leaders in the time of the Lord, were, for all intents and purposes, men without mercy. In His stirring rebuke of the scribes and Pharisees recorded in Matthew 23, in verse 23 we find Jesus saying, “Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cumin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.” The Roman world in which Jesus lived was extremely unmerciful, particularly to slaves and children. Slaves were treated as no better than property and could be put to death at the whim of their owner. Unwanted children were simply discarded in the streets of the larger cities. Against this backdrop, Jesus taught the importance and transcendent value of mercy. One of the best explanations of this mercy that Jesus calls for in a citizen of His kingdom that I have found is, “To be merciful is to have the same attitude to men as God has, to think of men as God thinks of men, to feel for men as God feels for men, to act towards men as God acts toward them.” (I do not remember the author of that statement. I truly wish that I did for it is wonderfully practically. g.l.). It is the opposite of self-centeredness and selfishness. Jesus said that the merciful would obtain mercy. This is a basic principle. If we want God to be merciful to us, we must be merciful to others. James put it so simply in James 2:13, “For he shall have judgment without mercy, that hath showed no mercy; and mercy rejoiceth against judgment.” Perhaps the next time we are tempted to look with distain upon someone whose conduct has gotten them into trouble, we will remember that our conduct got us into trouble too. All of us have sinned and were it not for the grace and mercy of God, we would have no hope. Greg Litmer “BLESSED ARE THE PURE IN HEART” The sixth of the glorious Beatitudes from the Sermon on the Mount was “Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” To be “pure in heart” is to have a singleness of mind, an honesty that has no hidden motives, no selfish interests. It is to be true and open in all things. The “heart” means “the inner man, the faculty and seat of intelligence.” Consequently, Jesus was saying, “Blessed are those whose understanding is clear, whose spiritual vision is singular, and whose motive is honest; for they shall see God.” When I think of one who manifested this kind of purity of heart, I think of the good king, Josiah. In 2 Kings 22:1-2, this description is given of him, “Josiah was eight years old when he began to reign, and he reigned thirty and one years in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Jedidah, the daughter of Adaiah of Boscath. And he did that which was right in the sight of the Lord, and walked in all the ways of David his father, and turned not aside to the right hand or to the left.” Consider also Jesus. What singleness of mind He had; an honesty that had no hidden motives and absolutely no selfish interests. Paul exhorts us in Philippians 2:5-8, to have the same singleness of mind and purpose. He wrote, “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.” He had come to do the will of His Father, and that is exactly what He did. In the carrying out of His mission it was said of Jesus that no “guile was found in His mouth” (1 Peter 2:22). All that we know of God’s will for us and all that we know of the Lord Jesus, we know through the revealed Word. Those who know and love the truth, who follow it with a singleness of mind and with no ulterior motive but a love for God and a desire to be eternally with Him – these are the pure in heart. They will “see God.” Simply, they will have a relationship with God, both here on earth and ultimately in heaven.
Greg Litmer
|