The Rule of Reciprocity

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”—Matthew 5:7

Showing mercy to others is an indicator that we will receive mercy from God. In the Sermon on the Mount, one qualification to enter into the kingdom of God is the quality of being merciful to others. Being merciful includes showing mercy to those who do not deserve it. That’s what mercy is: withholding a punishment from someone who deserves it. Grace is giving you what you don’t deserve, while mercy is withholding what you do deserve. Here our Lord is laying down a qualification for life in the kingdom: the rule of reciprocity. Reciprocity means receiving equal value for what you give, and for us, we receive mercy from God when we give mercy to others. Our Lord mentions that it is a state of being, which is what “blessed” is. It is a delight in being merciful to others, not just once, but as a lifestyle wherein we consistently show mercy to others. How can this be? We can extend mercy to others because we recognize that we have had God’s mercy extended to us through what Christ Jesus did on the cross.

Jesus illustrated this principle when He told the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant in Matthew 18. The man owed an exorbitant sum of money to the king, which he could not pay. The king was ready to throw him into prison, but the man pleaded for his life and the king granted him mercy. Right after leaving the king’s presence, he found a fellow servant who owed him a much less substantial amount of money. He demanded the fellow servant pay, but he was unable. He pleaded with him, but the servant refused and had him cast into jail. Word got back to the king and when the king heard, he was outraged and demanded that the servant be brought before him. He questioned him as to why he didn’t grant mercy when he had just received it. And because of his failure to grant mercy to others, mercy was withheld from him and he was thrown into prison. The moral of the lesson is that we are to forgive in order to be forgiven, or have mercy on others because we are beneficiaries of God’s mercy through Christ.

Our time in glory will be a time when we will continually be overjoyed at the mercy we have received from God. The one who has truly experienced God’s mercy desires to be merciful to others. May we be merciful, knowing the price paid that made God’s mercy available to us. And may men and women see Christ in us because of it. Amen.