Blessed When We Love Others

Our love for God, living right with God, flows over into love for others and impact our relationships with other people. Our love for others shows our love for God. Last we looked at the habits of the heart that guides our relationship with God. As we focus on and love God we become pure in heart. We show mercy, compassion and forgiveness to others. We become peacemakers. And God blesses us. He shows us mercy, we see him, and we are called children of God. But living as children of God in this world brings about persecution. And that is a blessing because that confirms that we are authentic kingdom people.

1. Be Merciful

“Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.”

How do we love God and worship God? “For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgement of God rather than burnt offerings” (Hos 6:6). “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” (Mic 6:8)

Our God is a merciful God. Because of God’s mercy through Jesus Christ we can enter the kingdom of heaven. Now he call us as his kingdom people to “Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful” (Lk 6:36). We show mercy through compassion and forgiveness.

Mercy is to show compassion to someone in serious need, distress or crisis. However, it is not simply feeling compassion. Mercy is compassion in action. It is to take action like the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:30-37). Like the righteous on the King’s right in Matthew 25:34-40, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.” And when they asked when they have done such things, he answered, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”

Mercy as compassion in action helps, heals, cures, relieves, serves, sacrifices. Bonhoeffer says it like this, the merciful “have an irresistible love for the down-trodden, the sick, the wretched, the wronged, the outcast and all who are tortured with anxiety. They go out and seek all who are enmeshed in the toils of sin and guilt.”

Mercy is to show compassion and forgiveness to someone who has offended us. We have experienced God’s mercy. We have been forgiven much. This should compel us to forgive. “For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” (Mt 6:14-15) Don’t forget the parable of the unmerciful slave. At the end in Matt. 18:35 Jesus said, “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart.”

2. The Pure in Heart

“Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.”

“Who may ascend the mountain of the Lord? Who may stand in his holy place? The one who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not trust in an idol or swear by a false god.” (Ps 24:3-4)

What comes to mind when we hear the words “pure in heart”? A heart in which there is no evil, no lies, no immoral thoughts. A heart clean from sin, greed and lust. Yes, all these but also much more.

Only God can make our hearts pure. God promised in Ezekiel 36 that we will cleanse us from all our impurities and from all our idols, and that he will give us a new heart and put a new spirit in us (Eze 36:25-27) And that is what God did through Jesus Christ. The blood of Jesus, his Son, washes us clean, purifies us from all sin (1 Jn 1:7). He made us holy, and because of this holiness we can now enter into God’s presence, and see him. “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father” (Jn 14:9)

The pure in heart are those who have surrendered their hearts completely to Jesus. There are no falsehoods in them. No divided loyalties. No selfish motives. They are honest and transparent, before God and people. Their hearts belong exclusively to Jesus. The pure in heart are single-mindedly focused on God. They know God, delight in God, love God, more than they know, delight in and love anything else.

Are our hearts clean, pure? Are our hearts focused on God?

3. We Are Peacemakers

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.”

God is the author of peace and reconciliation. “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Col 1:20)

God’s peace is not just the absence of conflict. God’s peace is concerned with the overall and total well-being of people. God’s peace reconciles, restores, heals, loves, cares. It brings wholeness in all of a person and in all of life. This peace is possible because of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is peace. Jesus Christ made peace. He came and preached peace. (Eph 2:14-19) He is the Prince of Peace. Jesus Christ brings peace and gives peace. “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give you” (Jn 14:27).

And now as kingdom people, our Lord calls us to be peacemakers. We are called to live in peace (1 Co 7:15). We must seek peace and pursue it (1 Pe 3:11). We must make every effort to live in peace with everyone (Heb 12:14; Ro 12:18).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer explains this well. Jesus’ “kingdom is one of peace, and the mutual greeting of his flock is a greeting of peace. His disciples keep the peace by choosing to endure suffering themselves rather than inflict it on others. They maintain fellowship where others would break it off. They renounce self-assertion, and quietly suffer in the face of hatred and wrong. In so doing they overcome evil with good, and establish the peace of God in the midst of a world of war and hate.”

Peacemaking is radical because it is not a natural human quality. It goes against our selfish interests and desires to establish our rights, our wills, our views. But we have experienced God’s peace through Jesus Christ. In Christ we are new, and by the power of the Holy Spirit we are peacemakers; peacemakers who meet the evil, the wicked, the insults, the hurts, the anger and outrage of this world with peace and love. We are ready to suffer at their hands, to carry our crosses with our Lord for it was on the cross that peace was made (Bonhoeffer, 113).

4. Rejoice and Be Glad

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

The world does not like and want the kingdom life because the kingdom opposes and contradicts the ways of the world. Therefore, when we life the kingdom life, the world, society, people, co-workers, even family and friends will despise us, reject us. They will persecute us.

When these things happen as they will, we will not sulk like a small child. We will not lick our wounds in self-pity. We will not just grin, bear it and tough it out. What will we do? We rejoice, be glad, and even leap for joy (Stott). Why?

Because by these persecutions and sufferings we will know that our faith is genuine, authentic. We will know that we are true followers of Jesus Christ. We will rejoice. What a glorious privilege it is to suffer for my Lord, to suffer like him, for him. We rejoice because we may lose everything on earth, but we know that we will inherit everything and much, much more in heaven, in the eternal kingdom.

When we are not experiencing persecution, we may have to ask ourselves whether we as believers, and church, have become like the world. Do we want a smooth life of comfort and convenience? Then we should do this. Live like the world lives. Approve of the world’s ethics and morals. Take no stand on political, cultural, or moral issues that are unbiblical. Be quiet when God is mocked. Immerse ourselves in the materialism and entertainment of the world. Participate in the anger, outrage, and hatred all around us. Do not share our faith. Do not make disciples of others. (cf. Hughes, 74) Then we will have smooth sailing in life. Easy and simple.

5. All Things Are Possible with God

Is the kingdom life possible? Yes, it is.

After the rich young man left because he loved his great wealth and could not follow Jesus, and after Jesus stated how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God, the disciples were amazed. “Who can then be saved?” Jesus answered, “With man this is impossible, but not with God. All things are possible with God.” (Mk 10:17-31)

The kingdom life and these blessings are possible because of Jesus Christ. In him the kingdom is here and available to us. Have you entered the kingdom? Are you following Jesus? Are you poor, mourning, hurting, oppressed, blind, deaf, sick, caught in the bondages of addiction, sin? Are you consumed by greed, material things, anxiety, worry, performance, achieving status, and success? Come to Jesus the Bread of Life, the Living Water. You will be set free, cleansed, and healed. You will enter the kingdom and have new, eternal life. Surrender your heart to Jesus, and your heart will become his heart, and he will enable you to live the kingdom life. He will give you these blessings.

We believed. We have entered the kingdom. We have died in Christ. We have been raised with Christ. We have new life in Christ. Christ lives in us, and he, his power and his Spirit makes the kingdom life possible. But for that to happen we must abide in Christ so that our hearts will become like his heart. We must take action. We must clothe ourselves with these habits of the heart.

“Put to death” — a command and action we must take — “whatever belongs to your earthly nature … since you have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator.”

“Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly …” (Col 3:1-17)