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“Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” Institute of Biblical Discipleship New Testament Commands of Christ Jesus: Bible study # 75 by Nolan McFadden Α Bible text: Luke 6:36 “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) Our Lord Jesus commanded His disciples, “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.” (Luke 6:36) What does it mean that our Father in Heaven is merciful? As Christians, how do we follow God’s example of being merciful? To what extent are we to have mercy on others? As twenty-first century followers of Christ Jesus, how do we apply this New Testament command in our daily lives? Using the Holy Bible as our textbook, let’s consider what the Scriptures reveal about God’s mercy. I. God is merciful. It is one aspect of His eternal character. Our LORD desires that we follow His example by being merciful to others (Exodus 20:3-6, Nehemiah 9:31, Psalm 118:1,2,3,4,29; 136:1,2,3,4,5) A. In Luke 6:36 the word “merciful” is translated from the Greek word οίκτίρμονες. It means “…pitiful, compassionate for the ills of others,…(of the character of God, to be expressed in His people);…” (1) B. Our LORD commanded, “Thou shalt have no other gods before me. Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth: thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; and shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.” (Exodus 20:3-6) B. Concerning the marvelous fact that the “mercy” of our LORD (Jehovah) is eternal, five times in Psalm 118 the psalmist declared, “his mercy endureth for ever…” (Psalm 118:1,2,3,4,29) Likewise, five times in referring to the LORD’s eternal mercy in Psalm 136 we find the words, “his mercy endureth forever…” (Psalm 136:1,2,3,4,5). C. The psalmist proclaimed, “Praise ye the LORD. O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever.” (Psalm 106:1) D. As Christians, it is comforting to know that God’s mercy toward us is forever through Jesus Christ our Lord (Romans 8:28-39; 9:15-24). In Romans 9:2224 the apostle Paul declared, “What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath [the unsaved] fitted to destruction: and that he might make known the riches of his glory on the vessels of mercy [the saved], which he had afore prepared unto glory, even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?”