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An Attribute We May Share, February 9
Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful.
Luke 6:36
.
Mercy is an attribute that the human agent may share with God, thus
cooperating with Him. Mercy is kind, pitiful. Mercy and the love of God
purify the soul and beautify the heart, cleansing the life from selfishness....
God’s love for the angelic host is as a part of Himself, direct and positive
in its divinity. God’s love for the human race is a peculiar form—a love
born of mercy, for the human subject is all-undeserving....
Mercy implies the imperfection of the object upon which it is bestowed.
Because of man’s imperfection, mercy was brought into active existence.
Sin is not the object of God’s love, but of His hatred. Yet He pities the
sinner, because the guilty one bears the Creator’s image and has received
from Him the capabilities that make it possible for him to become a son of
God, not through his own merits, but through the imputed merits of Jesus
Christ, through the great sacrifice the Saviour has made in his behalf....
In the church militant the children of men will be ever in need of
restoration from the results of sin.... We are all dependent on one another.
Almost invariably a man who is superior to another man in some respect is
inferior to him in other respects. Every human being on earth is subject to
temptation. And all are in need of human influence and sympathy.... He
who cooperates with God by showing mercy brings himself into a position
where God will extend mercy to him, for he is in harmony with the divine
attributes.
God’s love and mercy are ever extended toward sinners. Shall men
who themselves have sinned against God, refuse to forgive and accept a
repentant sinner? ... God loved us while we were yet sinners. How clear
and unmistakable the line of duty is made by the words, “As ye would that
men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise” (
Luke 6:31
).... Only
those who walk with Christ can be truly merciful
[47]
13
Letter 202, 1901
.
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