Receiving And Extending Mercy

The words of Jesus in Luke 6:36 say that we are free to be merciful just as Yahweh, the Father, is merciful.  Just as God is kind and merciful to "the ungrateful and wicked" (Luke 6:35), we are like God in this regard whenever mercy is expressed.  James 2:13 even clarifies that judgment without mercy will be given to those who are not merciful, though showing mercy is not the Biblical way to procure the ultimate salvation from the second death.  Emphasizing the inverse of this, Matthew 5:7 has Jesus state that the merciful will be given mercy.  It is true that receiving divine mercy can prompt someone to extend it to others, yet there is much more to the subject of mercy than might be imagined.

Those who are merciful can expect to receive mercy for acting as God does, yes, though there are certainly wholly irrational reasons to seek or offer mercy, such as out of selfishness (because it can benefit oneself) or emotionalistic appeal.  Many Christians are irrationalists and might only would want mercy from humans or God because they do not want to face a just fate.  The misuse of mercy by most people and the way that almost no one at all actually understands what mercy is and is not does not mean that mercy is problematic, of course.  On the only moral-religious worldview with any evidence in its favor at all, it is a necessity to receive mercy to secure redemption and eternal life.  It is nonetheless not a moral necessity even on the part of Yahweh or Christ.

As a prerequisite to salvation, it is indeed needed if fallen beings are to be pardoned for their sins; even reaching a morally perfect life after the slightest moral error in the past, with perfection being attainable by everyone (reason and the Bible agree on this, as with Job 1:1), would do nothing to erase the guilt of what was once done or believed.  A certain kind of person confuses an optional exemption from true justice as a moral obligation because both justice and mercy are part of God's character, but these are very different types of needs.  If God had never desired to show mercy to anyone, he would not have done anything wrong by letting or causing all the unsaved to descend into oblivion of the mind (Ezekiel 18:4).

As something that reflects part of his nature, though, mercy is objectively good on the Christian worldview.  It just is not and cannot be obligatory, as it can only exist if justice exists and there cannot possibly be an obligation to not be just.  To be merciful is to imitate the Biblical God knowingly or unknowingly, but what determines if someone is merciful is determined by what is just.  A person is not merciful because they abstain from treating someone as their meaningless conscience or social norms would have them act.  This is achieved when they have not treated a person as they deserve in a punitive sense, which corresponds to God's nature.  To not kill someone for a forms of theft besides kidnapping (Exodus 21:16), for example, is not mercy.  No one deserves to be executed for such a sin even if all sin deserves an eventual biological death (Romans 6:23), so mercy would instead be not calling for the full ratio of restitution, or not calling for restitution or servitude for the debt at all (Exodus 22:1, 3b-4).

Again, there could be nothing wrong about being without mercy, for this is not the same as being unjust by treating people more harshly than they deserve.  It remains true that mercy is an integral part of Christian values in another sense, something that God practices, delights in, and desires even though even he would not need to extend it to anyone in order to be good.  Showing mercy for emotionalistic reasons is still asinine.  Showing mercy out of gratitude for the divine mercy received, out of a sincere love of other people (though love does not require mercy, only that one treats others as their moral rights deserve), or out of the strategic hope that someone might be inspired to turn to redemption are what is rational or morally good.