After my first read through the Bible, one of the thoughts that kept recurring to me was that I was to show mercy to others as God had shown it to me. I did not understand then that the kind of mercy God wanted to see in His children was not something that could be conjured up by fleshly means; but that it was the kind spoken of here in the beatitudes, that which is the fruit of the root of humility. Poverty of spirit and mourning for sin are the root from which the beatitude fruit grows. Throughout the Bible, there are metaphors about roots, branches and fruit to illustrate that fruit needs a root; and if the root is bad, the fruit will be bad, as in Mat 3:10 And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire. [That is, God looked at the fruit to determine if the root was good or bad; and He planned to destroy the bad roots.]
God makes the root good at conversion; afterwards, we are able to receive the guidance of His Spirit that godly fruit might grow in our lives. Regarding godly fruit in our lives, consider one more example wherein the above metaphor is seen in part: Pro 1:30 They rejected my advice and paid no attention when I corrected them. Pro 1:31 Therefore, they must eat the bitter fruit of living their own way, choking on their own schemes.
What was the root that bore such bitter fruit? Selfishness. In Pro 1:30, the one eating the bitter fruit was walking in the way of Self rather than the way of God: he was directing his own life; seeking his own goals…and disregarding God’s rules He set down in scripture.
To apply the metaphor of root-branch-fruit to interpersonal interactions, consider the following: when we think of making improvements in our lives by changing our behavior, we tend to focus directly upon our behavior without considering the root of that behavior, our thoughts (longings, desires, opinions…). People do it all the time, that is the essence of hypocrisy. That is like pretending to be loving and merciful (fruit) while permitting anger or hatred to be in the thought life (root) regarding that person to whom we are showing mercy: thoughts are the roots of feelings and behaviors. A person can successfully pretend to be merciful while having hateful thoughts, but his merciful behaviors will be inconsistent or short-lived; fleshly; heinous to God. Not to mention, that when a person’s inner thoughts are not in line with his conduct that he lacks integrity; and that such inconsistencies are telegraphed (unintentionally), and that people who can read body language can articulate those inconsistencies. And people who can’t read body language, can feel that something is amiss. We have all been phonies at one time or another and we can sense it in others (at those times, the source of our phoniness / hypocrisy is that glaring difference between our actual thoughts and our pretense at gracious behavior).
I noticed such inconsistencies in my conduct and thought life after studying the beatitudes over a couple-year period. I listened to a couple hundred sermons, making observations of my behavior, seeking to understand how these attitudes could be brought about in my life…. And it eventually occurred to me that the foundation of humility has to be there for true beatitude mercy, purity, etc., to ever occur in my conduct. And noticing my inconsistencies was not sufficient to change them; when they occurred, I identified the type of sin that they were so that I might confess in a particular manner my sins to God, and if necessary, to people. (Don’t the epistles indicate that we ought to examine ourselves and seek to be real in our relationships with God and people?) Furthermore, I get many opportunities every day to learn to process my sins in a way that might result in real beatitude fruit in my life by causing humility in me, because it seems that I am always sinning in thought, word or deed. (I first became aware of that when I was memorizing scripture with most of my time while working as a part-time security guard; frequently seeing my thoughts next to God’s thoughts in my mind revealed this to me.)
So, what I am saying is that when I noticed that I lacked mercy (by observing and owning my behavior), I then focused on identifying the particular sin I was committing and confessed it to God; because those actions could cause me to experience greater humility; and if I grew in humility, I would AUTOMATICALLY be growing godly fruit (all of those beatitudes that follow poverty of spirit and mourning sin).
To state that differently, the root of selfishness AUTOMATICALLY produces ungodly fruit such as that catalogued by Paul: Gal 5:19 When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, Gal 5:20 idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, Gal 5:21 envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
That is, an apple tree produces apples; a pear tree produces pears; a seed of corn produces corn….
Moreover, it is important to note that abiding in God’s appointed means of grace causes one to be humbled; therefore, it promotes the growth of beatitude fruit. (When one hears God’s truth via preaching, Bible reading…and compares it to his behavior, conviction is felt and humility is experienced. That is why I am saying that the means of grace promote humility and lead one towards the narrow way, the way of increased poverty of spirit.)
Therefore, my focus was on changing the root (my thoughts) not the fruit (my behavior); because whatever kind of root exists in my thoughts, that kind of fruit will automatically grow in my visible life, my conduct (see post 1d, the pdf download, for more understanding on this point).
What can you do to increase your godly fruit?
You could learn self-observation and examination. That is, notice your behavior. Evaluate it, is it godly fruit or ungodly?
Notice how you go about trying to produce godly fruit. Do you attempt to change your behavior? Or do you use self-examination to discern your underlying thoughts and motives? Attempting to change your behavior is like removing all the apples from an apple tree and fastening pears on it; they will stay for a time, but the next crop will again be apples because that is what naturally occurs on apple trees.
That is the same with humans. The root of SELF produces the fruit of Galatians 5:19ff; the root of the SPIRIT produces godly fruit: Gal 5:22 But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, Gal 5:23 gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Therefore, if you as an individual believer lack mercy, then the solution is not to conjure up some merciful behavior, it is to abide in the means of grace that you might experience greater humility; or if your body of believers lacks mercy, then the solution is again, to abide in the means of grace. That is, a lack of mercy (or any other beatitude fruit) is indicative of the absence of poverty of spirit and mourning sin.
No naturally proud human wants to accept God’s assessment of himself initially (he wants to exalt himself), but abiding in God’s means of grace might bring that about because the Holy Spirit uses those means to grow humility in a believer and a body of believers. (Do you remember what poverty of spirit and mourning sin looks like in a believer? It requires that one own his sin in his relationships with God and humans and confess it to God and to humans when necessary…. Review Beatitude Life posts 1-2b to refresh your memory, as an understanding of these things is essential to your living the Christian life according to the Bible.)
Before I provide a succinct definition of mercy, I just want to remind readers how much emphasis the Bible places on sin. The Old Testament has 929 chapters; the New, 260 chapters; that is a total of 1189 chapters. In the first two chapters of Genesis, God dwelt with His creatures; in the last two chapters of Revelation, God will again dwell with His creatures; the rest of the Bible, 1185 chapters is about God putting away sin in His creatures so that He will be able to dwell with them as He did initially in the garden of Eden. Doesn’t that scream out to you that God wants you to deal with sin via the means of grace that He has appointed (see my post on God’s appointed means of grace)? Read through the Bible and see it for yourself, it registered upon my consciousness as I continued to read through His word.
Those professed believers sitting on the sidelines of the Christian life, not engaged in warfare or sitting under God’s appointed means of grace have their own uninformed opinions about what it is to be a good Christian. Based upon all of the unbiblical worship occuring in Christianity today, I am certain that few are sitting under His means of grace. Mat 7:14 But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it. More importantly, if you want to find it, then the aforementioned will be of aid to you.
Having said all that, I have a few comments from one of Dr. John MacArthur’s sermons about mercy that sums it up well:
MERCY IS “…giving food to the hungry; comfort to the bereaved; love to the rejected; forgiveness to the offender; companionship to the lonely…. It is therefore, one of the loveliest and noblest of all virtues.”
God has shown us mercy via Christ’s atoning work and righteous life; because of Christ, we can be forgiven of our sins. He is looking for us to show mercy to other humans, especially Christian brothers and sisters. I heard another pastor sum up mercy by saying that it is pity plus action to give what mercy requires.