{"id":5281,"date":"2021-03-24T08:18:30","date_gmt":"2021-03-24T08:18:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/?p=5281"},"modified":"2023-07-03T12:36:17","modified_gmt":"2023-07-03T12:36:17","slug":"blessed-are-the-merciful-matthew-57","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/blessed-are-the-merciful-matthew-57\/","title":{"rendered":"\u201cBlessed are the Merciful\u201d (Matthew 5:7)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cBlessed are the Merciful\u201d (Matthew 5:7)<\/strong><\/p>\n

Father George Konstantopoulos<\/strong><\/p>\n

March 24, 2021<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Sermon on the Mount of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, specifically His Beatitudes evokes about blessing, revealed through the beatitude on as to how to be blessed. \u201cTo be blessed\u201d means\u00a0 \u201cbeing in an enviable state of those who are in God\u2019s heavenly Kingdom.\u201d Focusing on a particular Beatitude which is \u201cBlessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy,\u201d it is important to understand, we shall be merciful for God shall have mercy on us. (Matthew 5:7)<\/p>\n

Holy Scripture states, \u201cHe shall receive blessing from the Lord, and righteousness from the God of his salvation.\u201d Mercy is the compassion of God toward man. Therefore, every form of God\u2019s righteousness to man is a form of mercy and love for him, after all the Lord was \u201cled like a lamb to the slaughter\u201d and died for us on the Cross. (Psalm 24:5, Isaiah 53:7)<\/p>\n

God has commanded humans to obey the laws for we shall be righteous; even through our struggle; we ought to have mercy towards God. It is said, \u201cThen it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.\u201d The mercy of God will be amongst humans if there is adherence to His commandments. (Deuteronomy 6:25)<\/p>\n

Mercy is the actual and pure compassion of the Orthodox Christian towards his fellow man, including his enemy. It is also revealed on our active support for our fellow man, both materially and spiritually. Though it is essential to support our fellow man financially, donating clothes, food, and other necessary materials, it is not enough. We shall also have a relation-ship with built up by love. The meaning of being merciful is to \u201chave compassion for one\u2019s enemy and to be willing to forgive them.\u201d It is to say sincerely, \u201cforgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.\u201d (Matthew 6:12)<\/p>\n

The Sermon on the Mount of Our Lord and Savior also is also a preaching about \u201cthe how to perform deeds of mercy:\u201d it teaches us to beware of practicing our piety before men in order to be seen by them; for then we will have no reward from God. Thus, when we give alms, as the hypocrites do.\u2026 But when we give alms, we must not let our left hand know what your right hand is doing\u2026. To do deeds of kindness with the aim of being praised by others, will be the means of depriving oneself of the rewards of our Heavenly Father, for God Who sees in secret will reward you. As it is said, \u201cTake heed that you do not do your charitable deeds before men, to be seen by them. Otherwise you have no reward from your Father in heaven. Therefore, when you do a charitable deed, do not sound a trumpet before you as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may have glory from men. Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. But when you do a charitable deed, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, that your charitable deed may be in secret; and your Father who sees in secret will Himself reward you openly.\u201d (Matthew. 6:1-4)<\/p>\n

Christians need to have sympathy for those people living around us. They are \u201cthe Lazaruses of our lives the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus,\u201d who are the reason for our salvation and key of our inheritance of Kingdom of Heaven. Instead of having love of money, we shall have love for the needy and poor; In Luke\u2019s gospel it is stated, \u201cNow the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, also heard all these things, and they derided Him and He said to them, \u201cYou are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. \u201cThe law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one title of the law to fail.\u201d (Luke 16:14\u201331)<\/p>\n

According to how we have pity and treated them, we shall be merciful and \u201call those who are charitable and merciful on earth in the Name of God will find mercy in the Kingdom of Heaven.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Sermon on the Mount of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, specifically His Beatitudes evokes about blessing, revealed through the beatitude on as to how to be blessed. \u201cTo be blessed\u201d means\u00a0 \u201cbeing in an enviable state of those who are in God\u2019s heavenly Kingdom.\u201d Focusing on a particular Beatitude which is \u201cBlessed are the merciful, for they will obtain mercy,\u201d it is important to understand, we shall be merciful for God shall have mercy on us. (Matthew 5:7)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5281","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christian-living-and-doctrines","category-sermon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5281"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7067,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5281\/revisions\/7067"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/eotcmk.org\/e\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}