in luke 6.35f Jesus commands His disciples,
LOVE ye your enemies and DO GOOD and LEND, hoping for nothing again; and
your reward shall be great and
ye shall be the children of the Highest;
for He is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil.
BE ye therefore MERCIFUL,
as your Father also is merciful.
i can get my mind around the concepts of doing good and lending. these are things that in the conceit (excessively favorable opinion of one's own ability) of my heart i think i can actually do on my own without God's help but when it comes to merciful...it is far beyond even my conceit and i am made to know i need God...that there is absolutely no way i can even attempt to be merciful from the heart. i'm so sick of putting on masks...trying to send 'signals' to people so they will say to themselves, 'my, how merciful the boy is!'. i'm sick of garbage religion in place of the inner reality of Jesus coming directly to the hearts of others. my flesh screams for recognition, but the spirit is so thirsty for the reality of known within and genuinely flowing out.
the normal word for 'mercy' in the new testament is the greek, eleos, translated 'mercy, pity,compassion'. but here Jesus commands me as His disciple to be oiktirmones as God the Father is oiktirmones.
eleos is related to such hebrew words in the old testament as:
-kopher-the price of a life, ransom (word used in 'the mercy seat' which was in the holy of holies)
-racham-compassion (a feeling of deep sympathy and sorrow for another who is stricken by misfortune, accompanied by a strong desire to alleviate the suffering)
-chasad-to be good, kind (II samuel 15.20) (note: hope these scriptures are correct..did not check)
-chanan-show favor, be gracious (job 9.15; daniel 4.27)
-chamal-to spare (job 16.13; isaiah 63.9)
looking at these hebrew words, all but kopher pretty well match the new testament understanding of eleos..except kopher. kopher gives 'the heart' of, the source of 'mercy'. someone totally innocent has to die for someone totally guilty. their blood has to be shed and that shed blood covers the sin of the guilty one.
but oiktirmones, i don't think...has any related hebrew words to help understand it. it seems though that eleos is more related to
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