More Than a Feeling

But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.—James 3:17

I know that not all of you like to ask technical questions about the Bible, but I beg you to be patient with me for just a moment. As I have been looking at this verse all week, this one phrase has been bugging me: “full of mercy and good fruit.” Now of all the words that James lists here, why would James choose to put mercy and good fruit together? I thought at first that maybe these are the only things that you can be full of, but that isn’t true. So why? Am I just reading too much into this, or is there really something there?

The conclusion that I have come to is that mercy and good fruit are intrinsically linked. You see, if mercy is the heart, then the good fruit would be the hands and feet of the body. I guess another way to put it is that mercy isn’t just a feeling—it has to manifest itself in actions if it is truly mercy. So while mercy may begin with a compassionate feeling, it has to get its hands and feet along the way too. As our faith grows, there may even be periods where we grow more merciful in certain areas, but we haven’t figured out yet how to live that out. That is ok. But the important thing is that we wrestle with that and continue to grow and learn how to live out that mercy.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says, “Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.” Aren’t we thankful that Jesus did not merely feel merciful for us, but that he chose to come to earth and show us mercy through his life, and ultimately through the cross? May our mercy be a reflection of the mercy that he has shown to us.