Eleeo – ‘kind or compassionate treatment; the power to forgive or be kind; clemency’
ελεαω (Matthew 5:7). This beatitude is but the extension of the fourth, it has to do with the obtaining the mercy of forgiveness or pardon which the fourth beatitude calls righteousness. The Greek term ελεημονες (Strong’s #1655) translated merciful means literally, “One with a disposition to forgive or offer kindness (help) in excess of what may be expected or demanded by fairness; hence, merciful” (cp. Matthew 18:32,33; Hebrews 2:16,17; Daniel 9:8,9). The second term in this passage ελεηθησονται (Strong’s #1653) translated mercy is literally defined as: “kind or compassionate treatment; the power to forgive or be kind; clemency; hence, mercy.” Young defines the terms: “merciful, literally ‘kind’ having reference to the unfortunate rather than the guilty, because they shall ‘have kindness’ from God and man.”F1 In the Greek eleeo’ is a synonym with the term ‘oikteiro.’. Thayer differentiated the two by stating: “eleeo] — to feel sympathy with the misery of another, especially, such sympathy as manifests itself in act, less frequently in word; whereas, oikteiro] — denotes the inward feeling of compassion which abides in the heart. A criminal begs eleos to his judge; but hopeless suffering is often the object of oiktirmos.”F2 Bullinger, also accurately distinguishes between the two: “elenmon, merciful, actively compassionate, not merely unhappy for the ills of others, (which is oiktirmon), but desirous of relieving them; not merely pity (which is oiktirmon), but beneficent aid promptly applied.”F3 These two synonyms are used together when the apostle Paul quoted from the Septuagint: “I will do kindness to whom I do kindness, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion” (Exodus 33:19; Romans 9:15). In the fifth beatitude, Jesus is not referring to the inward feeling of pity or compassion one has for the grief or suffering of another, for it that were the case He would have used the word ‘oiktirmos,’ but instead He used the term ‘eleos,’ thus indicating, “Blessed are those possessing a kind, forgiving disposition: for they themselves shall obtain kindness (help) or clemency.” Luke’s record shed’s light as to the meaning of this beatitude: “Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6:36-38).
The words of this beatitude are directly related to the words of David: “With the merciful thou wilt show thyself merciful” (2 Samuel 22:26,27; Psalms 18:25,26). It is God’s method to awake in us an active compassion toward our fellow man by our following His example in first giving help to us through Jesus, our “merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God, by “making propitiation for our sins” (Hebrews 2:16,17). In the kingdom parable of the unmerciful debtor, the servant to whom his lord forgave ten thousand talents was naturally expected to exercise the same measure of active kindness necessary in order to forgive his fellow servant’s debt of a hundred pence. Instead of this, he relentlessly imprisoned his servant until he should pay it up, therefore, rousing his lord’s indignation, which was intended as a vessel of mercy but instead became unto him a vessel of wrath (Matthew 18:23-35; cp. Matthew 5:23,24; 6:15; James 2:13). The lesson of the parable is that we are all the objects and recipients of divine mercy in the pardon of sin, but forgiveness is not only a thing received, it is extended into a relation. “If we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanseth us from all sin” (1 John 1:7). The gospel of Christ is a system of mercy, and as recipients of it we shall not withhold from or deny to others that which we claim for ourselves if we wish to enter into the Messiah’s kingdom. For one to love God, they must also love their fellow man, for we manifest our love to God by keeping his commandments and helping one another (Matthew 22:36-40; 25:34-40; 1 John 5:2,3). The fifth beatitude, can therefore, be seen as a “missionary” beatitude, in that we are merciful when we show to others God’s divine mercy by which we have been saved.
This beatitude balances with the gospel. “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and the renewing of the Holy Spirit” (Titus 3:5). The principal sentence in this passage is: “According to His mercy He saved us.” The conditions of this salvation are stated in a negative and an affirmative: Not by — but by. Not by what? Not by works of righteousness which we have done, thus, not by our own works of merit. But by what? But by the washing of regeneration. Literally translated the phrase ‘to loutron paliggenesias‘ reads: “the laver of being born again.” The Greek word ‘loutron‘ translated “washing” found only in Titus 3:5 and Ephesians 5:26 according to the Greek lexicographers means literally, “laver” and refers to the “washing” or “laver” of baptism in the N.T (Hebrews 10:22; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Acts 22:16).F4 F5 F6 F7 F8 F9 F10 F11 F12 According to the context, Paul implies that baptism is an antitype of the Old Testament laver, because it is the bath of the new birth and the “washing” by means of which God actually brings about the new birth and through His mercy washes away our sins by the blood of Christ (Acts 2:38; 22:16). Just as under the Old Covenant the laver was placed before the entrance into the tabernacle of God (tent of meeting) and one was required to wash ones hands and feet prior to entering (Exodus 30:17-21), so too, the laver of baptism is at the entrance into the kingdom of God and “our bodies must be washed with pure water” (Hebrews 10:19-22) prior to gaining entrance therein. Thus, when we are born again in the new birth (John 3:3-5) in order to enter into the kingdom of God we are made a “new creature” in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17). It follows then that baptism (immersion) in water is not a work of human righteousness or merit, but rather is a “working of God” (Colossians 2:12), the same as faith is said to be “the work of God” (John 6:28,29), and has something to do with what God does when He saves a sinner by His mercy, namely, making us “alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses” (Colossians 2:13). So the passage reads in transposition: “He saved us not by works but by baptism according to His mercy.” Titus 3:5, Ephesians 5:26; John 3:5; and 1 Corinthians 12:13 are all similar passages and placed directly above each other on a sheet of paper they make an enlightening commentary unto each other from Scripture. In addition, Paul’s statement in Titus 3:5 harmonizes with his comments to the church at Ephesus: “For by grace have ye been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works, that no man should glory” (Ephesians 2:8,9). Every person addressed in this passage had been baptized (Acts 19:1-5; Ephesians 4:5; 5:26) and salvation is here represented as a system of grace, as it is a system of mercy in Titus 3:5; and “is the gift of God” because its recipients are the objects of grace and mercy and do not obtain it through any work of human merit.
So, within the fifth beatitude a preview of the gospel plan of salvation can be seen. The Lord Jesus revealed the grace and mercy of God in saving humanity through the gospel (Romans 1:16,17) when He gave the great commission to His disciples. When one compares all three gospel narratives of this divine plan of salvation as commanded through the great commission of our Savior, then he can readily see and know what the gospel teaches in order for one to take hold of God’s system of grace and mercy and enter into the Messiah’s heavenly kingdom: “And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you: and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:18-20). “And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned” (Mark 16:15,16). “And he said unto them, Thus it is written, that the Christ should suffer, and rise again from the dead the third day; and that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in his name unto all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem” (Luke 24:46,47). On the day of Pentecost the apostles began to carrying out the Lord’s commission by preaching the purpose of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus, the Messiah, to the large audience present from around the world (Acts 2:14-36). Upon hearing the message the crowd “were pricked in their heart,” thus, they obviously believed on the Lord, “and said unto Peter and the rest of the apostles, Brethren, what shall we do? And Peter said unto them, Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins; and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For to you is the promise, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call unto him” (Acts 2:37-39). Peter and the rest of the apostles preached the same message of God’s system of grace and mercy as Christ had previously commanded in His commission and the result was: “They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls” (Acts 2:41). Therefore, this beatitude is but the extension of the fourth, for it has to do with the obtaining the mercy of forgiveness or pardon which we receive from God and which we must extend to one another.
FOOTNOTES:
F1: Robert Young, LL.D., F.E.S.L., Concise Critical Comments on the Holy Bible (London: Pickering & Inglis), New Testament, pg., 5.
F2: Joseph Henry Thayer, D.D., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1901), pg., 203.
F3: Ethelbert W. Bullinger, A Critical Lexicon and Concordance To The English And Greek New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, reprint of 1975), pg., 495.
F4: John Parkhurst, M.A., A Greek And English Lexicon To The New Testament (London: T. Davison, Whitefriars, 1812), pg., 406.
F5: Joseph Henry Thayer, D.D., Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1901), pg., 382.
F6: Henry George Liddell, Robert Scott, Sir Henry Stuart Jones & Roderick McKenzie, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: At the Clarendon Press, reprint of 1843 edition, 1989), pg., 1061.
F7: Edward Robinson, D.D.LL.D., Greek and English Lexicon Of The New Testament (New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, 1884), pg., 436.
F8: Walter Bauer, William F. Arndt & F. Wilbur Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon Of The New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, 2nd Edition (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1979), pg., 480.
F9: Max Zerwick S.J. & Mary Grosvenor, A Grammatical Analysis Of The Greek New Testament (Rome: Editrice Pontificio Istituto Biblico, 1988), pg., 589.
F10: Heinrich August Wilhelm Meyer, TH.D., Critical and Exegetical Handbook To The Epistle To The Ephesians, vol. 7 (Peabody, Massachusetts, 1983 reprint of 6th edition of 1884), pg., 512.
F11: Joh. Ed. Huther, TH.D., Critical and Exegetical Handbook To The Epistles To Timothy and Titus, vol. 9 (Peabody, Massachusetts, 1983 reprint of 6th edition of 1884), pg., 315, 316.
F12: M.R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament, Vol. II (Florida: MacDonald Publishing Company, reprint of 2nd edition 1888), pg., 1081.
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Meet the Author
Bill Klein has been a pastor, counselor, and educator for the past 41 years. He has had extensive training and education in biblical languages, and has authored a Biblical Greek course.
He is currently serving as Professor of Biblical Greek at Master’s Graduate School of Divinity, and president of BTE Ministries – The Bible Translation and Exegesis Institute of America, a non-profit organization located in California that provides Bible study tapes and Greek study materials through their website BTEMinistries.org.
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