Bible Studies
Two of the most beautiful words in all of the Bible are mercy and truth. I find them linked together by God (our Heavenly Father) many times. What are they? Why are they linked together?
First let us look at the word mercy, this word as translated from the Hebrew word chesed, which means kindness, loving kindness, beauty or favor. This same word mercy as defined or translated from the Greek word eleos (as used in the New Testament) means compassion (divine or human, especially active).
Here is how our English dictionary defines mercy: (1) Leniency and compassion shown toward offenders by a person or agency charged with administering justice. (2) A disposition to be kind and forgiving. (3) The feeling that motivates compassion. (4) Something for which to be thankful. (5) Alleviation of distress; showing great kindness toward the distressed.
I wanted to be very technical and detailed with my documentation of the definition of mercy. However, I feel that it is plainly, simply, and sweetly God's favor, kindness, and compassion given to all those who do not deserve it.
Second let us look at the word truth, this word is translated from the Hebrew word emeth, which means stability, certainty, trustworthiness, faithful, right, sure, or verity. This same word truth as defined or translated from the Greek word aletheia (as used in the New Testament) means true or verity.
Here is how our English dictionary defines truth: (1) A fact that has been verified. (2) Conformity to reality or actuality. (3) A true statement. (4) The quality of being near to the true value. Again, I wanted to be very technical and detailed with my definition of the word truth. However, I feel that it can be defined simply as what's right, sure, and absolute.
Mercy and truth are mysterious character traits of God. He passes these traits down to each of His children and expects them to never forsake them. Our Heavenly Father delights in mercy and truth and is always dispensing each in abundant and lavish amounts upon His children and upon the earth. No person could ever be endowed with too much mercy or truth.
Proverbs 14:22 Do they not err who devise evil and wander from the way of life? But loving-kindness, mercy, loyalty, faithfulness, and truth shall be to those who devise good. (Quick Amplified Bible)
God's mercy and truth are fully evident in the gospel. The gospel is good news. The gospel, as defined by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, is God's manifold wisdom and mystery revealed in the person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The prophet Isaiah prophesied about our Lord and His mercy and truth in Isaiah 16:5.
Isaiah 16:5 In mercy the throne will be established, and One will sit upon it in truth, in the tabernacle of David, judging and seeking justice and hastening righteousness. (NKJV)
Think about the mercy required to die for someone who absolutely hates you and everything that you represent. We cannot even comprehend such mercy and compassion. Which of us (if we were honest) would die for someone who hates or despises us?
Romans 5:6-8 While we were yet in weakness [powerless to help ourselves], at the fitting time Christ died for (in behalf of) the ungodly. Now it is an extraordinary thing for one to give his life even for an upright man, though perhaps for a noble and lovable and generous benefactor someone might even dare to die. But God shows and clearly proves His [own] love for us by the fact that while we were still sinners, Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One) died for us. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Christ embodied all of the mercy and truth of Almighty God in Him. The scriptures state that He went about doing good.
John 1:14 And the Word (Christ) became flesh (human, incarnate) and tabernacled (fixed His tent of flesh, lived awhile) among us; and we [actually] saw His glory (His honor, His majesty), such glory as an only begotten son receives from his father, full of grace (favor, loving-kindness) and truth. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Why are they (mercy and truth) linked together? Well, as we stated earlier, God prefers to dispense His mercy upon souls, but if His mercy is rejected or resisted, then His judgment (which equates to His truth) must be rendered to every soul.
1 Peter 4:17-18 For the time [has arrived] for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it begins with us, what will [be] the end of those who do not respect or believe or obey the good news (the Gospel) of God? And if the righteous are barely saved, what will become of the godless and wicked? (Quick Amplified Bible)
One must never try and separate the mercy of God from the truth of God. This also can be stated as separating the love of God from the wrath of God. God has revealed Himself completely to us in His Son the Word incarnate the Lord Jesus Christ. Christ is God and He did not come and appease those who did not see their need for redemption by lavishing piles of unconditional love upon them. He always offered mercy. However, His mercy was never given without the dispensing of truth.
Psalm 85:10 Mercy and truth have met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other. (NKJV)
For example, the woman caught in adultery was not shown mercy by our Lord and then given a free pass to continue in her adulterous ways. On the contrary, the Lord told her sweetly, gently, and plainly that He did not condemn her, but that she was to go and sin no more.
Psalm 61:7 He shall abide before God forever; Oh, prepare mercy and truth which may preserve him! (NKJV)
His mercy of forgiveness was immediately followed by His revelation of truth. Those of us who are His children, we still receive both His mercy and truth and they guard and keep us. However, when we err from the narrow road, immediately truth is present in chastisement from our Heavenly Father. But when we confess to Him (what He already knows) the error of our way, He is faithful and just to forgive our sin and then cleanse us from that unrighteousness.
Psalm 25:10 All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth, to such as keep His covenant and His testimonies. (NKJV)
The forgiveness and cleansing is His mercy to His children. No responsible earthly parents allow their children to constantly misbehave with out dispensing punishment. If we human beings are fallible (and we are) and we understand this necessity, How much more does God who is perfect and infallible.
Hebrews 12:6-11 For the Lord corrects and disciplines everyone whom He loves, and He punishes, even scourges, every son whom He accepts and welcomes to His heart and cherishes. You must submit to and endure [correction] for discipline; God is dealing with you as with sons. For what son is there whom his father does not [thus] train and correct and discipline? Now if you are exempt from correction and left without discipline in which all [of God's children] share, then you are illegitimate offspring and not true sons [at all]. Moreover, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we yielded [to them] and respected [them for training us]. Shall we not much more cheerfully submit to the Father of spirits and so [truly] live? For [our earthly fathers] disciplined us for only a short period of time and chastised us as seemed proper and good to them; but He disciplines us for our certain good, that we may become sharers in His own holiness. For the time being no discipline brings joy, but seems grievous and painful; but afterwards it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it [a harvest of fruit which consists in righteousness--in conformity to God's will in purpose, thought, and action, resulting in right living and right standing with God]. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Do you happen to be one of these people who believe that the grace of God allows you to live any sinful way you deem proper? If so, you know nothing of the mercy and truth of God that all of His true children understand completely. Don't ever sell the mercy of God short. His mercy can reach down into the lowest pit of sin and pull a lost or backslidden soul from that pit into His glorious and wonderful light.
Psalm 86:15 But You, O Lord, are a God full of compassion, and gracious, long suffering and abundant in mercy and truth. (NKJV)
However, His mercy never compromises His truth. He is a righteous and holy God who showed us how He felt about sin in the crucifixion of our Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible says that it pleased the Father to bruise the son. This is because He (the Father) had to deal with man's sin once and for all.
Psalm 89:14 Justice and judgment are the habitation of thy throne; mercy and truth shall go before thy face. (KJV)
Hebrews 9:24-28 For Christ (the Messiah) has not entered into a sanctuary made with [human] hands, only a copy and pattern and type of the true one, but [He has entered] into heaven itself, now to appear in the [very] presence of God on our behalf. Nor did He [enter into the heavenly sanctuary to] offer Himself regularly again and again, as the high priest enters the [Holy of] Holies every year with blood not his own. For then would He often have had to suffer [over and over again] since the foundation of the world. But as it now is, He has once for all at the consummation and close of the ages appeared to put away and abolish sin by His sacrifice [of Himself]. And just as it is appointed for [all] men once to die, and after that the [certain] judgment, Even so it is that Christ, having been offered to take upon Himself and bear as a burden the sins of many once and once for all, will appear a second time, not to carry any burden of sin nor to deal with sin, but to bring to full salvation those who are [eagerly, constantly, and patiently] waiting for and expecting Him. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Christ through His blood sacrifice has canceled, cast off, declared invalid, overturned, set aside, neutralized, rejected, and brought to nought sin. In Christ, we have the full complement of mercy and truth that will last forever.
Psalm 98:3 He hath remembered His mercy and His truth toward the house of Israel; all the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God. (KJV)
Proverbs 3:3 Let not mercy and kindness [shutting out all hatred and selfishness] and truth [shutting out all deliberate hypocrisy or falsehood] forsake you; bind them about your neck, write them upon the tablet of your heart. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Proverbs 16:6 By mercy and love, truth and fidelity [to God and man--not by sacrificial offerings], iniquity is purged out of the heart, and by the reverent, worshipful fear of the Lord men depart from and avoid evil. (Quick Amplified Bible)
Sincerely in Christ,
Clifford D. Tate, Sr.
Author, Silent Assassins of the Soul (not yet published; coming soon)
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