Mercy (1656) (eleos) is the outward manifestation of pity and assumes need on the part of those who are recipients of the mercy and sufficient resources to meet the need on the part of those who show it.
The idea of mercy is to show kindness or concern for someone in serious need or to give help to the wretched, to relieve the miserable. Here the essential thought is that mercy gives attention to those in misery.
Larry Richards notes that...
Originally (eleos) expressed only the emotion that was aroused by contact with a person who was suffering. By NT times, however, the concept incorporated compassionate response. A person who felt for and with a sufferer would be moved to help. This concept of mercy--as a concern for the afflicted that prompts giving help--is prominent in both the Gospels and the Epistles. (Richards, L O: Expository Dictionary of Bible Words: Regency)
Vincent commenting on Luke 1:50 (see verses at end of this verse note) writes that eleos...
emphasizes the misery with which grace deals; hence, peculiarly the sense of human wretchedness coupled with the impulse to relieve it, which issues in gracious ministry. Bengel remarks, “Grace takes away the fault, mercy the misery.”
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Mercy for past sins; grace for future work, trial, and resistance to temptation. (Ed: see more below on distinction between mercy and grace)
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The pre-Christian definitions of the word eleos include the element of grief experienced on account of the unworthy suffering of another. So Aristotle. The Latin misericordia (miser “wretched,” cor “the heart”) carries the same idea. So Cicero defines it, the sorrow arising from the wretchedness of another suffering wrongfully. Strictly speaking, the word as applied to God, cannot include either of these elements, since grief cannot be ascribed to Him, and suffering is the legitimate result of sin. The sentiment in God assumes the character of pitying love. Mercy is kindness and good-will toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them. (Vincent, M. R. Word Studies in the New Testament) (Bolding added)
In Classical Greek...
eleos was used as a technical term for the end of the speech for the defence, in which the accused tried to awaken the compassion of the judges. (Brown, Colin, Editor. New International Dictionary of NT Theology. 1986. Zondervan)
Trench adds that...
Aristotle defined eleos this way: "Let mercy [eleos] be a certain grief for an apparently destructive and painful evil toward one who experienced what was undeserved in respect to what he himself or one of his family might expect to suffer." (Trench's Synonyms of the New Testament)
Wuest writes that eleos is...
God’s “kindness and goodwill toward the miserable and afflicted, joined with a desire to relieve them” (Vincent). Grace meets man’s need in respect to his guilt and lost condition; mercy, with reference to his suffering as a result of that sin. (Wuest, K. S. Wuest's Word Studies from the Greek New Testament: Eerdmans or Logos)
Broadus writes that mercy
includes also the idea of compassion, and implies a desire to remove the evils which excite compassion. It thus denotes not only mercy to the guilty, but pity for the suffering, and help to the needy. (Broadus, J. Sermon on the Mount).
A debtor to mercy alone,
Of covenant mercy I sing;
Nor fear, with thy righteousness on,
My person and offering to bring;
The terrors of law and of God
With me can have nothing to do;
My Saviour's obedience and blood
Hide all my transgressions from view.
Augustus M. Toplady
(Click to play his hymn)
Vincent comments on another Greek word for mercy
oiktirmos (Ed: “pity, compassion for the ills of others”), from oiktos, pity or mercy, the feeling which expresses itself in the exclamation "Oh!" on seeing another's misery. The distinction between this and eleos, according to which oiktirmos signifies the feeling, and eleos the manifestation, cannot be strictly held, since the manifestation is often expressed by oiktirmos. See Sept., Psalm 24:6; 102:4; 118:77. (Adapted Vincent's Word Studies in the New Testament) (Bolding added)
Eleos- 27x in 26v in the NAS - Mt 9:13; 12:7; 23:23; Lk 1:50, 54, 58, 72, 78; 10:37; Ro 9:23; 11:31; 15:9; 16" class="scriptRef">Gal 6:16; Ep 2:4; 1Ti 1:2; 2Ti 1:2, 16, 18; Titus 3:5; He 4:16; Jas 2:13; 3:17; 1Pe 1:3; 2Jn 1:3; Jude 1:2, 21. NAS = compassion, 2; mercy, 25.
Eleos is used over 170 times in the OT (Septuagint) with 91 of those uses being in the psalms most often for the Hebrew word for Lovingkindness (02617) hesed/chesed/heced an important OT word (246x in 239v) is defined as not merely an attitude or an emotion but an emotion that leads to an activity beneficial to the recipient. Hesed differs somewhat from the NT meaning of eleos in that hesed is a beneficent action performed, in the context of a deep and enduring commitment between two persons or parties (it is closely associated with the concept of Covenant - see Greek word diatheke), by one who is able to render assistance to the needy party who in the circumstances is unable to help him or herself.
One needs to distinguish between grace and mercy. Grace or Charis is God’s free gift for the forgiveness to guilty sinners whereas His mercy is the gift He gives to alleviate the consequences of our sins. Charis or grace emphasizes the free, unmerited aspect of salvation whereas mercy is in a sense the application of grace. Grace is shown to the undeserving, while mercy is compassion to the miserable. Grace is God’s solution to man’s sin. Mercy is God’s solution to man’s misery. Thus grace is especially associated with men in their sins, while mercy is usually associated with men in their misery. Grace covers the sin, while mercy removes the pain. Grace forgives, while mercy restores. Grace gives us what we don’t deserve while mercy withholds what we do deserve.
Grace is getting what we do not deserve.
Justice is getting what we do deserve.
Mercy is not getting what we do deserve.
In the distinction between grace and mercy, Trench adds that...
While charis (grace) has reference to the sins of men, and is that glorious attribute of God which these sins call out and display, His free gift in their forgiveness, eleos (mercy) has special and immediate regard to the misery which is the consequence of these sins, being the tender sense of this misery displaying itself in the effort, which only the continued perverseness of man can hinder or defeat, to assuage and entirely remove it.… In the divine Mind, and in the order of our salvation, as conceived therein, the mercy precedes the grace: God so loved the world with a pitying love (herein was the mercy), that He gave His only begotten Son (herein is the grace), that the world through Him might be saved. But in the order of the manifestation of God’s purposes in salvation, the grace must go before, and make way for the mercy. (Trench, R. C. Synonyms of the New Testament. Hendrickson Publishers. 2000)
Eleos is often used in the Septuagint (LXX) for the Hebrew word hesed which refers to God's covenant faithful love.
Mercy includes at least three elements - recognizing the need, motivation to meet the need and taking action to meet the specific need...
1. ”I see the need”
2. “I am moved by the need”
3. “I move to meet the need”
Mercy says "I have the feeling of sorrow over another person's "sad" situation and I make the volitional choice to seek to do something about their need." This is mercy in action, preeminently portrayed by our Mercy Filled (Merciful) God Who sees the sad state of lost sinners, feels compassion for them (Eph 2:1-3) and acts to grant them His mercy.
Mercy is more than a feeling, but not less than that. Mercy begins with simple recognition that someone is hurting around you. But mere seeing or feeling isn’t mercy. Mercy moves from feeling to action. It is active compassion for those in need or distress.
Nowhere do we imitate God more than in showing mercy. - Albert Barnes
The more godly any man is, the more merciful that man will be. -Thomas Brooks
Mercy prefers to deal with the needy in terms of what is needed rather than what is deserved. - D. Edmond Hiebert
If God should have no more mercy on us than we have charity one to another, what would become of us? - Thomas Fuller
Show your piety by your pity. - Thomas Watson
Mercy imitates God and disappoints Satan. - Chrysostom
Our presence in a place of need is more powerful than a thousand sermons. - Charles Colson
If the end of one mercy were not the beginning of another, we were undone. - Philip Henry
There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself—it is infinite. - Spurgeon
He who demands mercy and shows none burns the bridges over which he himself must later pass.
God's throne is mercy—not marble.
Remembrance of past mercies is a great stimulus to present faith. - Jerry Bridges
All our past mercies are tokens of future mercies. - C. H. Spurgeon
There’s a wideness in God’s mercy,
Like the wideness of the sea
- Frederick W. Faber
(Play hymn)
Mercy is God's Benjamin; the last born and best beloved of his attributes. - C. H. Spurgeon
If God should have no more mercy on us than we have charity one to another, what would become of us? - Thomas Fuller
If God dealt with people today as he did in the days of Ananias and Sapphira, every church would need a morgue in the basement. - Vance Havner
Have mercy on us, God most high,
Who lift our hearts to Thee;
Have mercy on us worms of earth,
Most holy Trinity.
- Frederick W. Faber
(Play Hymn)
God has two sheepdogs: Goodness and Mercy (Ed: cp Psalm 23:6). He sends them to us from his throne of grace; sometimes to bark at us, to badger us; sometimes to woo us by persuading us that his will is good and perfect for our lives. - Sinclair Ferguson
Spurgeon comments on this phrase goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life (Psalm 23:6) - This is a fact as indisputable as it is encouraging, and therefore a heavenly verily, or "surely" is set as a seal upon it. This sentence may be read, "only goodness and mercy," for there shall be unmingled mercy in our history. These twin guardian angels will always be with me at my back and my beck. Just as when great princes go abroad they must not go unattended, so it is with the believer. Goodness and mercy follow him always -- all the days of his life -- the black days as well as the bright days, the days of fasting as well as the days of feasting, the dreary days of winter as well as the bright days of summer. Goodness supplies our needs, and mercy blots out our sins.
What a world this would be if God sat on a throne of justice only, and if no mercy were ever to be shown to men! - Albert Barnes
We are saved by God's mercy, not by our merit—by Christ's dying, not by our doing.
God's wrath comes by measure; His mercy without measure.
Depth of mercy! Can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?
Can my God His wrath forbear,
Me, the chief of sinners, spare?
- Charles Wesley
(Play "Depth of Mercy")
An actress in a town in England, while passing along the street, heard singing in a house. Out of curiosity she looked in through the open door and saw a number of people sitting together singing this hymn (Depth of Mercy). She listened to the song, and afterwards to a simple but earnest prayer. When she went away the hymn had so impressed her that she procured a copy of a book containing it. Reading and re-reading the hymn led her to give her heart to God and to resolve to leave the stage. The manager of the theater pleaded with her to continue to take the leading part in a play which she had made famous in other cities, and finally he persuaded her to appear at the theater. As the curtain rose the orchestra began to play the accompaniment to the song which she was expected to sing. She stood like one lost in thought, and the band, supposing her embarrassed, played the prelude over a second and a third time. Then with clasped hands she stepped forward and sang with deep emotion:
“Depth of mercy, can there be
Mercy still reserved for me?”
This put a sudden stop to the performance; not a few were impressed, though many scoffed. The change in her life was as permanent as it was singular. Soon after she became the wife of a minister of the Gospel (Ed: What a great tale of His great mercy.) (Sankey, Ira David. My Life and the Story of the Gospel Hymns. Harper & Brothers, 1906) (Download from Google Books)
God of mercy, God of grace,
Show the brightness of Thy face;
Shine upon us, Savior, shine,
Fill Thy Church with light divine,
And Thy saving health extend,
Unto earth’s remotest end.
- Henry F Lyte
(Play hymn)
The Blue Letter Bible has this helpful note...
Mercy is when that which is deserved is withheld to the benefit of the object of the mercy. God has demonstrated this attribute in abundance with respect to mankind. We from nearly the beginning of our existence have deserved nothing but wrath; having sinned and fallen short of eternal life in glory, we can do nothing to commend ourselves to or defend ourselves before God. But thankfully, God has been so amazing in His mercy. Over and against merely having the mercy to allow us to live out our miserable lives without destroying us instantly, God has chosen us to greatness and glory by the hand of His Son. The believer finds himself in Christ and enjoys full well the fruits of God's mercy. (Blue Letter Bible)
Tasker explains,
The merciful are those who are conscious that they are themselves the unworthy recipients of God’s mercy, and that but for the grace of God they would be not only sinners, but condemned sinners."
The mercy of God is an ocean divine,
A boundless and fathomless flood.
Launch out in the deep, cut away the shore line,
And be lost in the fullness of God.
- Albert B. Simpson,
(Play Hymn)
William Barclay noted the Hebrew word (hesed) for "merciful" has the idea of
"the ability to get right inside the other person's skin until we can see things with his eyes, think things with his mind, and feel things with his feelings." (He adds in another article)
Eleos is a word which acquired a new meaning in Christian thought. The Greeks defined it as pity for the man who is suffering unjustly; but Christianity means far more than that by eleos.
(a) In Christian thought eleos means mercy for the man who is in trouble, even if the trouble is his own fault. Christian pity is the reflection of God’s pity; and that went out to men, not only when they were suffering unjustly, but when they were suffering through their own fault. We are so apt to say of someone in trouble, “It is his own fault; he brought it on himself,” and, therefore, to feel no responsibility for him. Christian mercy is mercy for any man who is in trouble, even if he has brought that trouble on himself.
(b) In Christian thought eleos means mercy which issues in good fruits, that is, which issues in practical help. Christian pity is not merely an emotion; it is action. We can never say that we have truly pitied anyone until we have helped him. (Barclay, W: The Daily Study Bible Series. The Westminster Press or Logos)
Leon Morris observes
These are people who show by their habitual merciful deeds that they have responded to God's love and are living by His grace. They will receive mercy on the last day.
Nothing proves that we have been forgiven (received God's mercy) better than our own readiness to forgive (dispense God's mercy)!
Hiebert defines mercy as
“the self-moved, spontaneous loving kindness of God which causes Him to deal in compassion and tender affection with the miserable and distressed.”
O sing the greatness of His mercy,
Unto those that seek Him ever full and free;
O sing, while angels join the chorus,
Rolling onward like the sea.
- Fanny Crosby,
(Play Hymn)
Related Resources on Mercy
Mercy - God's Attribute
Blessed are the merciful - see note on Matthew 5:7 (also lesson note)
A. W. Pink
The Mercy of God
John Piper (search)
1 Peter 1:3-4 God's Great Mercy and Our New Birth
The Transforming Power of Feeling Mercy
Spurgeon...
Psalm 33:18 Hoping in God's Mercy
Psalm 59:10 God's Mercy Going Before
Luke 1;77-79 The Tender Mercy of Our God
Genesis 8:21 Human Depravity and Divine Mercy
Luke 13:7, 8 Judgment Threatening but Mercy Sparing
Nahum 1:3 Mercy, Omnipotence, and Justice
Isaiah 48:9-11 Mercy’s Master Motive
Lam 3:22,23 Novelties of Divine Mercy
Spurgeon charges us to meditate on mercy...
"The mercy of God." Psalm 52:8
Meditate a little on this mercy of the Lord.
It is tender mercy. With gentle, loving touch, He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their wounds. He is as gracious in the manner of His mercy as in the matter of it.
It is great mercy. There is nothing little in God; His mercy is like Himself--it is infinite. You cannot measure it. His mercy is so great that it forgives great sins to great sinners, after great lengths of time, and then gives great favours and great privileges, and raises us up to great enjoyments in the great heaven of the great God.
It is undeserved mercy, as indeed all true mercy must be, for deserved mercy is only a misnomer for justice. There was no right on the sinner's part to the kind consideration of the Most High; had the rebel been doomed at once to eternal fire he would have richly merited the doom, and if delivered from wrath, sovereign love alone has found a cause, for there was none in the sinner himself.
It is rich mercy. Some things are great, but have little efficacy in them, but this mercy is a cordial to your drooping spirits; a golden ointment to your bleeding wounds; a heavenly bandage to your broken bones; a royal chariot for your weary feet; a bosom of love for your trembling heart. It is manifold mercy. As Bunyan says, "All the flowers in God's garden are double." There is no single mercy. You may think you have but one mercy, but you shall find it to be a whole cluster of mercies.
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