Being Righteous with Ourselves and Merciful toward others: Blessed are the Merciful!

Blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy (Matt. 5:7); we believers in Christ need to be strict and righteous with ourselves but merciful toward others, for if we’re merciful toward them, the Lord will also show us mercy, especially at His judgment seat.

Oh Lord, thank You for Your mercy toward us! Thank You for being merciful to us. Day by day we enjoy Your mercy. We feed on Your faithfulness by Your mercy. Amen, Lord, make us those who are merciful toward others so that God may also be merciful toward us. Oh Lord, may we be those who are righteous with themselves and merciful toward others! Amen!

Thank the Lord that He is merciful toward us. If He were to relate to us and judge us according to His righteousness, we would all be destroyed and terminated, but He has mercy on us.

In the Old Testament, we see Jeremiah, who saw something of what the Lord would do with His people; he saw that the people of Israel were sinful, wicked, and they disobeyed God and went after idols.

He received the Lord’s fresh message for His people to repent, and he saw that they would not repent, and he realised that the Lord will judge them. So he wept. He mourned over the situation of the people of Israel; he was one with the Lord to mourn for them.

He even wrote a book of lamentations. In this book, besides his mourning over the pitiful and low situation of the people of Israel, he said that it is Jehovah’s lovingkindness that the people of Israel was not consumed, for His compassions do not fail; they are new every morning, for great is God’s faithfulness (Lam. 3:22-23).

In the midst of him mourning over the situation, he touched God’s mercy. He realised that God’s compassions do not fail but rather, they are new every morning.

Thank the Lord for His compassion, His mercy reaching us even in our lowest situation.

As long as we have breath, as long as we live in the age of grace, the Lord can still have mercy on us. His mercy is available to us; we simply need to open to Him a little.

We may not be that open to Him, however, so He works through the environment to wake us up, to chastise us, and to bring us back to Himself. God is not out there to punish us or cause us to suffer; His lovingkindness is there for us, and we can enjoy God’s mercy.

When we partake of His mercy, we can be brought into a position where we can enjoy Him as grace and touch Him as love. Praise God for His mercies, compassions, and lovingkindness!

Blessed are the Merciful, for they shall be Shown Mercy – may we be Merciful Toward Others

Matthew 5:7 tells us that those who are merciful are blessed, for they shall be shown mercy. Oh, blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy! Amen!

We believers in Christ are kingdom people, and as such ones, we need to be merciful toward others.

A person’s situation may be so low that he is not worthy of grace; he needs mercy to accommodate him.

For example, if we have a friend who is in need, and he asks us for some money, we may give it to him; this is grace, for he is our friend, and we make him a favour.

But if we see a beggar on the street, one who doesn’t have anything but needs only our mercy, and we give him something, that is mercy, for there’s no way for him to repay us what we have given to him.

When we give people what they deserve, that is being righteous; when we give them better than they deserve, even showing them mercy, that is being merciful toward others.

For us to be in the kingdom of the heavens in reality, we need to be not only righteous but also merciful!

We need to be merciful toward others; if we are such ones, the Lord will grant us mercy (2 Tim. 1:16, 18), especially at His judgment seat (James 2:12-13).

If we are merciful toward others, God will also show us mercy. However, if we are strict with others, if we are righteous with them, God will also treat us in the same way, being strict with us.

This is not merely something of our behaviour, something that we need to work on in order to show others mercy; this has to do with our inner being.

We need to realise that, as kingdom people, we need to be righteous with ourselves, but with others we need to be merciful.

In Matthew 5:6 we are told that we need to hunger and thirst for righteousness; we need to be righteous with ourselves. However, we need to be merciful toward others.

It is easy for us, when we are strict with ourselves, to also be strict toward others, for we think that we should treat others the same way we treat ourselves.

But this is not how the Lord Jesus taught us concerning living the kingdom life. Some people are strict with themselves, but they are even more stringent toward others, placing more demands on them. Oh Lord!

To be righteous toward others is to make demands and to be strict, but to be merciful is the opposite, to show them mercy when they do not even deserve it.

May the Lord have mercy on us that we may touch His mercy, enjoy His mercy, and be merciful toward others, even as we are strict with ourselves before the Lord.

On the one hand, God has already displayed His mercy on us, but for our going on, we also need to join with Him and be merciful toward others.

Toward ourselves, we are not lenient or lax; we are strict with ourselves, even righteous toward ourselves. But toward others, we need to be merciful.

For the kingdom of the heavens, we need to be not only righteous but also merciful. To receive mercy is to receive what we do not deserve.

May we learn to be righteous toward ourselves and merciful toward others. In the church life, the more we know the word and the ministry, we may have the attitude of being righteous toward ourselves and also toward others. Oh Lord.

In our attitude toward others, we need to display God’s mercy. Too often, we are good at being righteous toward ourselves, but not merciful toward others. Oh Lord.

Sometimes we may have some young ones who have grown up in the church life, and we may be righteous toward them, placing demands on them.

We may put demands on our children, telling them that we do so many things for them to enjoy the Lord and the church life, so they should do this or that. Oh Lord!

We may excel at being righteous but we may fail at mercy; may the Lord have mercy on us that we may be merciful toward others.

Even as the Lord is merciful toward us, in spite of our failures, so we need to be merciful toward others.

Especially in the church life, as we care for the new ones and the young ones, what we need to show them is mercy, not righteous requirements.

The world today influences our young people, and we live in the days of Noah, at the end of this age.

There are many challenges, temptations, and an onslaught of negative things that are taking place. We need righteousness, but especially we need mercy; we need to be merciful toward others.

Today, man is in a fallen condition, violence and immorality is rampant on the earth. Man has become just flesh.

The people in the world today, the peers of our young people and students, are going in the wrong direction; we should not be shocked if our own young ones are veering off in a direction that is not good.

We need to have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart, always waiting for them and embracing them with love, preparing the fattened calf and feasting with them in the Father’s house when they return.

May we be such ones today. May we have the Father’s loving and forgiving heart, and may we be merciful toward others even as the Lord is merciful toward us.

Lord Jesus, we love You and we open to You today. We want to be those who are merciful toward others so that You may be merciful toward us. Amen, blessed are the merciful, for they shall be shown mercy! Oh Lord, we come to You as we are. We are hungry and thirsty for righteousness; we want to be righteous toward ourselves, but merciful toward others. May we be the kingdom people today, those who are righteous and strict with themselves but merciful toward others. Oh Lord, thank You for having mercy on us. Thank You for continually showing us Your mercy. Thank You for bearing with us, reaching out to us in Your mercy, and being with us in our low and pitiful condition. May we have the loving and forgiving heart of our Saviour God as we care for others. Amen, Lord, save us from being strict to others and placing demands on them; may we be merciful toward them! Amen, if we are merciful to others, the Lord will give us mercy, especially at His judgment seat! Amen, Lord, make us such ones today!

We need to be Righteous with ourselves and Merciful toward others – God’s Mercy is Needed

Many times we are merciful with ourselves and we are also merciful toward others; we may wake up late in the morning, so we do not have a time with the Lord, so we are merciful toward others in this. This is not what it means to be merciful toward others.

If we are lose or relaxed in regard to our being, not being strict with ourselves, it is easy to do the same toward others; this is not what the Lord wants.

Toward ourselves, we need to be strict, dealing with our inner being before the Lord, being righteous before the Lord, and seeking to be righteous by being one with the Lord in all things.

We may even pray much and restrict ourselves from certain activities, from going to certain places, and from saying certain things, for we want to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens one with the Lord.

We don’t do this in a legalistic or strict way outwardly; we are righteous toward ourselves inwardly – this is an inward attitude.

Also, we are not self-righteous, being proud of what we do and what we are, but rather, we humble ourselves before the Lord, for it is by His mercy that we can do this. We must first be righteous to ourselves, and then we need to be merciful toward others.

If we are strict with ourselves, we should not be strict toward others (Matt. 5:6-7); rather, we need to be merciful toward others.

For example, when someone offends us, thereby exposing their shortcomings, we need to be merciful toward them and not condemn them, but let them go. Someone who is strict with himself before the Lord can also be merciful toward others.

God Himself is righteous, and He is righteous in Himself; however, He does not apply the same righteousness to us, but toward us He has mercy.

Even though God is righteous in relation to Himself, He is full of mercy in dealing with us. We need God’s mercy.

In 2 Timothy 1:2, Paul says, Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.

We need grace, we need mercy, and we need peace; we need God in Christ as grace, mercy, and peace for our Christian life.

Only in 1 and 2 Timothy, among all his epistles, did the apostle include God’s mercy in the opening greeting. God’s mercy reaches farther than His grace.

In the degraded situation of the churches, God’s mercy is revealed. Today degradation is prevailing; even in the church life, it is easy for us to be in degradation, for the enemy is working tirelessly to wear us out, and it is easy for us to be complacent and self-contented.

If we look around us, both in the world and in Christianity, we see darkness and death, and we see a lot of corruption. Such things affect the saints; such things affect us.

What we need is God’s mercy. His mercy is prevailing. When we touch God’s mercy and partake of His mercy, we will also be merciful toward others.

When His mercy is prevailing in us and among us, there will be an atmosphere of love and mercy in the church life.

Even though some may return after some time of not being with the saints in the church life, they will feel welcomed and loved, with no condemnation or criticism.

This mercy brings in God’s rich grace, which is sufficient to deal with any degradation.

For us to tap into the all-sufficient grace, the grace that can meet every need, even for us to avail ourselves of the benefit of that grace, we need the Lord’s mercy.

Mercy is the door opener to God’s grace. May we be those who are strict with themselves and merciful toward others so that we may enjoy God’s grace.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You to live in the reality of the kingdom of the heavens today. May we be those who are strict with themselves, righteous with themselves, and who are also merciful toward others. Oh Lord, may there be grace, mercy, and peace from our God and Father and Jesus Christ our Lord! May we enjoy Your mercy so that we may partake of Your grace and peace. Thank You for having mercy on us. Thank You for reaching to us in Your mercy. Oh Lord, even in the situation of the degradation of the church today, we want to enjoy Your mercy. May we enjoy and also express Your mercy. Oh Lord, in the church life today, may there be an atmosphere of enjoying and expressing Your mercy. May we have Your loving and forgiving heart, even the heart of our Saviour God who shepherds and seeks others in love. May Your mercy bring in Your rich grace, which is sufficient to deal with any degradation!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration for this article/sharing comes from the Word of God, the enjoyment in the ministry, a sharing by the brothers on this topic, and portions from, Life-study of Matthew, msg. 15, by Witness Lee, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crucial Aspects of Matthew 5 through 7 (2025 September ITERO), week 4, Blessed Are the Merciful, for They Shall Be Shown Mercy and Receive Mercy – day 5.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – Why should you still tarry, tarry, / Keep Him waiting there? / He is kind and gracious, gracious, / Merciful and dear. / Listen to His tender voice / Do not grieve His heart, / Won’t you let Him enter, enter, / And His grace impart. (Hymns #1040 stanza 2)
  – The essence of the Kingdom is / A life that’s under heaven’s rule, / A life whose nature is divine / With Christ experienced in full. / Such is this life: in spirit poor, / With heart repentant, mourning, meek, / Which is to others merciful / And purely God Himself doth seek. (Hymns #944 stanzas 1-2)
  – Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying, / Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; / Weep o’er the erring one, / Lift up the fallen, / Tell them of Jesus the mighty to save. / Rescue the perishing, / Care for the dying; / Jesus is merciful, / Jesus will save. (Hymns #921 stanza 1 and chorus)