What does it mean that blessed are the merciful (Matthew 5:7)?

from the old testament

• God told Moses about His nature, saying, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6–7a). God does more than act mercifully; He is merciful and extends mercy to the repentant (Psalm 51:17).
• God’s people are to be like Him, also willing to extend mercy. Israel was given laws to teach them to be like their God, which included commands about being merciful to the poor and downtrodden. This was to exemplify how God had shown mercy to Israel (Deuteronomy 10:18–19; Leviticus 19:9–10).
• When Israel sinned and would later repent, God would extend mercy rather than the justice they deserved. For example, when returning to the land after God punished Israel with captivity and exile, the people recounted their history with God, saying, “You are a God ready to forgive, gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and did not forsake [the rebellious Israelites after the Exodus]” (Nehemiah 9:17).

from the new testament

• Matthew 5:7 reads, “Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.” It is found in a section known as the Beatitudes (Matthew 5:3–12), which are statements about what God’s people are like. These characteristics of citizens of God’s kingdom are theirs because, as God’s people, they act like Him. This means that the merciful are blessed by receiving God's mercy.
• Jesus demonstrated mercy. For example, when a paraplegic man was brought before Him, Jesus both mercifully forgave his sins and healed him (Matthew 9:2–7).
• While believers cannot forgive sin in the sense of saving someone, we can forgive someone’s sin against us when they repent (Matthew 18:21–22). Repentance is key, as even our heavenly Father forgives the repentant (Luke 15:20–21) because it demonstrates a desire to reconcile. Being “ready to forgive,” like God, is the hallmark of a kingdom citizen.
• Kingdom-citizens must be quick to do acts of mercy. We need to use wisdom in this area, as not everyone who asks for help needs it in the sense that they are unable to help themselves. Also, as resources are limited, our priority is to be helping those of the “household of the faith” (Galatians 6:10). James commented, “If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that?” (James 2:15–16). Being merciful is about ensuring that others have their basic needs met.
• Matthew 5:7 says that the merciful will be blessed with mercy. God responds to us in kind, as we treat others (cf. Matthew 6:14–15; 18:23–35). This does not mean He saves us because we are merciful, but He withholds some forms of mercy from even kingdom-citizens when they are not being merciful.
• A kingdom-citizen is one whom God was first merciful towards by saving them (Ephesians 2:4–5) and then giving them His Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). The Holy Spirit’s primary role in a believer is to mature them and make them more like Christ by producing righteous fruit in their lives (Galatians 5:22–23). One such fruit is mercy. Kingdom-citizens are marked by mercy because God first showed us mercy by saving us and gave us the Holy Spirit so we can mature and be like Him.

implications for today

The gospel is a message of mercy. It is God looking on the plight of humankind, knowing that we are all sinful (Romans 3:23) and cannot save ourselves, and then providing a way to be saved. It is God knowing that there is nothing lovely about us, no reason He had to save us, yet He sent His Son to die to make us lovely. It is Jesus giving up His exalted place and adding a human nature, made frail like ours, so that He could die for us (Philippians 2:6–8). The gospel is a message of mercy because, rather than immediately executing His wrath on us for our sin, God withheld it and gave us an opportunity to find forgiveness through His Son, Jesus.

Therefore, the kingdom of God is a kingdom that one enters because of God’s mercy. Every citizen of that kingdom has received mercy, and thus every citizen should be merciful in turn.

Jesus gave a parable about a servant who was forgiven much but refused to forgive someone who owed him a little (Matthew 18:23–35). What a wicked response to mercy! That was evidence that the man in the story didn’t appreciate what he had been given—he was not truly grateful.

That’s a warning for us. As believers, let us think about the mercy God has shown us the next time someone offends us, cuts us off in traffic, or when we see someone in dire need. We must remember that we also are in need of God's mercy. Knowing how it feels to be shown undeserved mercy, let us look to provide such mercy to others.