Matthew 5:
7 Blessed are the merciful, For they shall obtain mercy.
The word merciful comes from the Greek word eleemon, which means to show leniency, compassion, or forgiveness toward someone who has wronged you.
As is often the case, God’s way is the opposite of human nature. When we are wronged, we want to retaliate. At a minimum, we want to deny that person anything that is in our power to deprive them of. Let’s add in this passage from 1 Peter 3:
9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
It is always tempting to handle wrongs according to our sense of justice. But God offers a choice to us. Either we can try to right the wrongs done to us, or show mercy and trust in God’s promise.
Have you seen some of the many videos of road-rage incidents? One person tries to get ahead of another, and the second driver says, “I’m not letting you get away with that.” So he cuts the first driver off. The first driver gets angry and retaliates. It continues to escalate until one backs down, or they end up smashing up each other, or worse.
We look at that behavior and ask, “Why are they so immature? Does one car length really matter? Can’t one of them be the bigger person and back down?”
Road rage looks foolish, but we have the same choices as we go through our daily lives. Someone’s careless words offend us. Someone is hateful for no valid reason. Someone cheats to get ahead. Or someone just decides they don’t like us for some reason, and they intentionally wrong us. Some people will step over anyone, including friends, to get ahead. They decide their desires are more important than the wellbeing of others.
We’ll all face this many times – especially in the work force. Once we find ourselves in that position, we are at a crossroad. Do we follow our anger and decide not to let that person get away with it? Or do we look at God’s promise that if we show mercy to someone who clearly does not deserve it, God will repay our trust in Him with a blessing. If we lay down our self-will, God promises to fill us with His good – which will exceed anything we are losing by allowing the wrong to pass.
By definition, the word mercy means to show compassion on someone who does not deserve it. When it comes to faith, God shows us mercy by not holding our sins against us, and God shows us grace by giving us blessings we do not deserve. In other words, God doesn’t give us the punishment we deserve, but instead gives us the blessings we do not deserve.
Unforgiveness and retaliation is the act of us rejecting God’s mercy and grace toward us, because we don’t want to show that same grace and mercy to someone else. Unforgiveness and mercilessness is us stepping out of God’s blessed path for us, and stepping into the way of this fallen world because we choose human reasoning over God’s purpose for us.
When I was in my late teens, I worked for a construction company. One of my co-workers was talking about how nice it was to be out of prison after a nineteen year sentence. In the course of our conversation, he said that he killed his father-in-law because he disrespected him. Then he said something that surprised me, “I’d do it again if someone disrespected me now.”
In my mind, I’m thinking, On what level does that make sense? You forfeited 19 years of your life because you didn’t like how someone talked to you?
It may be an extreme example, but it illustrates how human nature works. When pride is ruling our hearts and making our decisions, in the moment of offense, we are tempted to make decisions that cost us greatly in order to avenge a wrong or perceived wrong. I’ve seen many people ruin their lives because they weren’t going to let an offense go.
Yet, to the one who lays down pride and turns to the promises of God, the offense is quickly gone and has no harmful affects on our lives. My mother used to have a saying, “Why would you cut off your nose just to get back at your face?” As a kid, I didn’t understand what this meant, but as an adult, I have witnessed many people do things that cause self-harm and self-shame in order to get back at someone else. Pride tells us to drink poison to get back at the other person.
God has a better way. Look at Proverbs 19:
11 The discretion of a man makes him slow to anger, And his glory is to overlook a transgression.
The word ‘discretion’ comes from the word ‘sekel’, which means to get insight by judging wisely and objectively. In other words, instead of a blind reaction driven by emotion, a person with insight takes a step back to see a bigger picture of life. They take the situation, and examine it like an object, then use wisdom to make an insightful decision as to how to handle the problem that is trying to stir our anger. Once we learn how to use discretion, then we can control our angry reactions. A reactive person cannot do this. Instead of gaining insight, the reactive person is blinded by their hurt pride and will make choices that often cause more self-hurt than the original wrong.
On the other hand, once we have stepped into God’s wisdom, we can overlook a wrong because we see the better choice of receiving the gifts of God’s grace. When we die to pride, God raises us up into glory. A foolish and reactive person may demand respect, but a wise man finds it without demanding anything. Some people can force others to pretend to respect them, but there is no real glory to the person who demands.
Daily we are faced with the choice of showing mercy and receiving the promise that your life will be blessed, but we have to show the same mercy we are wanting for ourselves. Pride blinds us to the fact that we desperately need mercy. The merciful person places themselves on the path of mercy and often doesn’t realize that God also has planned many blessings on that same path. Blessings you will miss if you reject mercy for another person.
God has designed the blessed life. Trust in mercy and walk by God’s design – especially when you are challenged to take matters into your own hands.
Eddie Snipes
August 2025