Kindness v. Mercy

Look at Jesus.

Would you say He saw God as merciful towards Him or would you say He saw God as kind to Him?

Mercy proceeds from a kind heart. It’s a subset of kindness.

In some conditions, a kind person will never have to express mercy.

Focusing on more encompassing concepts helps with grasping truth.

Yes, the leaves are there; you want to aim for the root.

Look at Psalm 23: 6 in different translations.

You’ll notice loving kindness in place of mercy in several places.

In others you’ll see kindess.

Whenever you see ‘mercy’ in a translation of scripture think beyond it’s sense in the statement “temper justice with mercy”.

It’s not always a judgement term. In some translations, we see ‘compassion’ used in place of mercy.

We are a product of God’s mercy.

Now He calls us his obedient children.

One who is always under judgement/condemnation is the one who only see mercy and rarely ever acknowldges God’s kindness.

One who pleases his Father will thank him for the mercy that made the relationship possible and see all the acts of kindness to come.

I’m grateful for God’s mercy and His kindness.

In heaven, no one thanks God for mercy because no one does anything wrong.

Yet people offer thanks to God continually.

In the Young’s literal translation of the bible, almost every occurence of mercy has kindness instead.

“that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” ‭‭> Ephesians‬ ‭2:7‬ ‭NKJV‬‬ https://www.bible.com/114/eph.2.7.nkjv

Written by Mayowa Daniel who lives and works in Abuja building useful things. You should follow him on Twitter. I'm iterating on this voice note journaling and sharing tool called olog. Get it on iOS, on Android and on the web. You can see WIP and suggest edits to articles here