The Wonderful Attributes of God
The Wonderful Attributes of God – (10)
Among the attributes of God are tenderness, compassion, and mercy
Truly, God is tender, compassionate, and merciful… Thus the Scripture has taught us in God’s relationships with human beings and with all creation… and the examples of this are very many.
The prophet David says in his Psalms: “The LORD is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in mercy” (Ps 103:8). “The LORD is gracious and full of compassion” (Ps 111:4). “The LORD is gracious and full of compassion, slow to anger and great in mercy” (Ps 145:8). “The LORD is gracious and righteous” (Ps 116:5) (Ps 112:4).
There may be harshness in human beings, but in God there is tenderness. Therefore David said: “Let us fall now into the hand of the LORD, for His mercies are great; but let me not fall into the hand of man” (2 Sam 24:14) (1 Chr 21:13).
And very often we find this in God’s dealings with sinners, even with a stiff-necked people. Therefore Nehemiah said to the Lord in his prayer: “Nevertheless in Your great mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; for You are God, gracious and merciful” (Neh 9:31). And King Hezekiah said to the people: “For the LORD your God is gracious and merciful, and will not turn His face from you if you return to Him” (2 Chr 30:9).
With this tenderness the psalmist sang in the Psalm and said: “He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor punished us according to our iniquities. For as the heavens are high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us. As a father pities his children, so the LORD pities those who fear Him” (Ps 103:10–13).
God is also compassionate in regard to His commandments and judgments. Therefore Saint John the Beloved says that “His commandments are not burdensome” (1 Jn 5:3). And we read in the Gospel that the Lord rebuked the scribes and Pharisees because “they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Mt 23:4). And He rebuked them for this, saying: “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in” (Mt 23:13).
And in His compassion toward His disciples He said to them: “I still have many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now” (Jn 16:12). His disciples also learned the lesson. In their acceptance of the Gentiles, they said: “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that you abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality” (Acts 15:28–29).
And we see that Saint James the Apostle, when he described the wisdom that comes from above, said that it is “peaceable, gentle… full of mercy and good fruits” (Jas 3:17).
And in God’s compassion, when He gives a commandment, He gives power and grace to fulfill it. Indeed, He gives His Holy Spirit to work in us. How beautiful is the saying of Saint Paul: “For it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure” (Phil 2:13). He explained his experience in this and said: “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me” (1 Cor 15:10).
Yes, it is compassion from God that He made the Holy Spirit dwell in us, and thus the Scripture says: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” (1 Cor 3:16). He dwells in us and works in us. Therefore Saint Paul says of himself and of his companion Apollos: “For we are God’s fellow workers” (1 Cor 3:9).
It is mercy and compassion from God that He brought us into “the fellowship of the Holy Spirit” (2 Cor 13:14) and made us “partakers of the divine nature” in work and in the life of holiness (2 Pet 1:4). He promised us from ancient times the indwelling of His Spirit within us, as He said in the prophecy of Ezekiel: “I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them” (Ezek 36:27).
And He promised that His Spirit would abide with us forever, teach us all things, and remind us of all that the Lord said to us (Jn 14:16, 26), guide us into all truth (Jn 16:32), and that we would not be the ones speaking, but He would speak in us (Mt 10:20).
And from God’s tenderness toward us is what He provides for us of care and providence. Is He not the One who said: “I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd gives His life for the sheep” (Jn 10:11). “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me. And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand” (Jn 10:27–28). He also said in the Old Testament: “I will feed My flock, and I will make them lie down, says the Lord GOD. I will seek what was lost and bring back what was driven away, bind up the broken and strengthen what was sick” (Ezek 34:15–16). “Indeed I Myself will search for My sheep and seek them out… and I will deliver them from all the places where they were scattered” (Ezek 34:11–12).
Thus David sang in the Shepherd Psalm, saying: “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want. He makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters. He restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness” (Ps 23:1–3). The Lord’s care is mingled with love and tenderness. Therefore it was said: “But when He saw the multitudes, He was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd” (Mt 9:36) (Mk 6:34).
From God’s tenderness toward people, He sends to them those who shepherd them and care for them. He sends to them His angels, of whom the Scripture says: “Are they not all ministering spirits sent forth to minister for those who will inherit salvation?” (Heb 1:14). Among them is what is called the guardian angel. As it is written: “The angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, and delivers them” (Ps 34:7). Also: “In all their affliction He was afflicted, and the Angel of His Presence saved them” (Isa 63:9). And it was said concerning this protection also: “He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (Ps 91:11–12).
He is the compassionate God who shepherds us and leads us in the procession of His triumph (2 Cor 2:14). He delivers us from every distress, as David testified, saying: “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side when men rose up against us, then they would have swallowed us alive… Our soul has escaped as a bird from the snare of the fowlers; the snare is broken, and we have escaped. Our help is in the name of the LORD, who made heaven and earth” (Ps 124:2–3, 7–8). He is the tender, compassionate Lord, “who delivers the poor from him who is too strong for him, yes, the poor and the needy from him who plunders him” (Ps 35:10). How many commandments the Lord placed for the sake of the poor… and commandments also for the sake of strangers, and for slaves, and for the disabled… all of them are tenderness and compassion.
His tenderness also appears in the trials we are exposed to. Concerning His compassion in trials, the Apostle says: “But God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it” (1 Cor 10:13). He is the One who said: “But the very hairs of your head are all numbered” (Mt 10:30). “Not a hair of your head shall be lost” (Lk 21:18). He entered into temptation in His incarnation: “For in that He Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted” (Heb 2:18).
Let us contemplate how much He helped righteous Job in his trial: “Now the LORD blessed the latter days of Job more than his beginning… The LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before… He also saw his children and grandchildren for four generations” (Job 42:10–16).
And how beautiful is what He said to the angel of the church in Philadelphia: “Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world” (Rev 3:10). Also His saying to Saint Paul: “I am with you, and no one will attack you to hurt you” (Acts 18:10). And His saying to the prophet Jeremiah: “They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you; for I am with you, says the LORD, to deliver you” (Jer 1:19).
God, compassionate and tender, stands beside His children in trials, to help and deliver them. Yet God’s tenderness is not limited to His children only; rather, His compassion also includes animals and nature. Just as He granted rest to man on the Sabbath day, He also commanded that rest be for his ox and his donkey and all his cattle (Deut 5:14), saying: “But the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female servant and the stranger may be refreshed.”
And from God’s tenderness is His saying: “You shall not plow with an ox and a donkey together” (Deut 22:10), because the ox is stronger than the donkey and faster in movement. If it plows with it, it exhausts and harms it. Likewise His saying: “You shall not see your brother’s donkey or his ox fallen down on the road, and hide yourself from them; you shall surely help him lift them up again” (Deut 22:4). Even if the animal falls on the Sabbath day, “he will lay hold of it and lift it up” (Mt 12:11). And the Lord says in His tenderness also: “You shall not muzzle an ox while it treads out the grain” (Deut 25:4), for if it is exhausted and hungry, it stretches its mouth to the grain and eats from it.
And when the Lord speaks about the birds of the air, He says: “Your heavenly Father feeds them” (Mt 6:26). And the Psalm says: “He gives to the beast its food, and to the young ravens that cry” (Ps 147:9). In His tenderness, “He satisfies every living thing with His pleasure.”
Moreover, the Lord’s compassion reaches sinners as well. “Even when we were dead in trespasses, He made us alive together with Christ… and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places” (Eph 2:5–6). And the Apostle Paul sings of this tenderness, saying: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Rom 5:8). This is God’s tenderness toward the sinful world, manifested in redemption: “But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities” (Isa 53:5).
In His tenderness He did not wound their feelings. With all compassion He accepted their repentance. He did not wound the feelings of the Samaritan woman, but gently drew her to confession (Jn 4). Likewise, the woman caught in adultery, with all tenderness He saved her from those seeking to stone her, and said to her: “Neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more” (Jn 8:11).
He did not rebuke Zacchaeus the tax collector for his life full of harshness and injustice, but with all tenderness He accepted him and entered his house despite the criticisms of the Jews, replying to them, saying: “Today salvation has come to this house, because he also is a son of Abraham; for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost” (Lk 19:9–10).
And the story of the prodigal son shows us the extent of the Lord’s tenderness toward repentant sinners, for it was said: “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him” (Lk 15:20). And it was said of the indebted servant when he pleaded with his master: “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt” (Mt 18:27). And the Lord said to Simon the Pharisee concerning him and the weeping sinful woman: “There was a certain creditor who had two debtors. One owed five hundred denarii, and the other fifty. And when they had nothing with which to repay, he freely forgave them both” (Lk 7:41–42). This is the Lord’s tenderness toward sinners who are unable to repay their debts. And He said to the weeping woman: “Your sins are forgiven… Your faith has saved you. Go in peace” (Lk 7:48, 50).
From God’s tenderness is His forgiveness of those who crucified Him, and of the thief crucified with Him. He said concerning His crucifiers: “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do” (Lk 23:34), and the depth of His tenderness appears here in that He even sought an excuse for them. As for the repentant thief, He said to him: “Today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Lk 23:43), erasing all his sins as though they had never been.
His tenderness also appears in His acceptance of Peter’s repentance and weeping after his denial (Mt 26:75), and He reassured him of his apostolic rank by saying to him after the resurrection: “Feed My sheep” (Jn 21:17).
As for His tenderness in the war against sin for us, He shortens the days of the tribulation of that world, saying in His tenderness: “For unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved” (Mt 24:22). And His grace supports us in battles, as the Apostle says: “Where sin abounded, grace abounded much more” (Rom 5:20).
The Lord’s compassion also includes enemies as well. For He “makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Mt 5:45). He did this toward atheistic countries that denied His existence, and toward pagan countries that worshiped idols. He endured in His mercy with communist countries until they returned to faith. During that time He granted them knowledge, progress, and prosperity.
And He taught us to do likewise, saying: “Love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you” (Mt 5:44). And the Scripture also says: “If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him a drink” (Rom 12:20).
In God’s astonishing mercy, He did not deprive Satan of his angelic nature after his fall. Satan lost his holiness but did not lose his nature or his power. He continued to fight humanity. God allowed him to tempt righteous Job (Job 1–2). And when the evil spirits asked permission to enter the swine, He permitted them (Lk 8:32). What gentleness in dealing, even with Legion!
We also notice that the miracles of the Lord Jesus were mingled with tenderness. In the winter, for example, it was said: “And when Jesus went out He saw a great multitude; and He was moved with compassion for them, and healed their sick” (Mt 14:14). Concerning the leper who implored Him, saying: “If You are willing, You can make me clean,” the Scripture says: “Then Jesus, moved with compassion, stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, ‘I am willing; be cleansed’” (Mk 1:40–41). Likewise, when the two blind men cried out outside Jericho, saying, “Have mercy on us, O Son of David,” “So Jesus had compassion and touched their eyes. And immediately their eyes received sight, and they followed Him” (Mt 20:34).
We see the same tenderness in the raising of the son of the widow of Nain. This widow was walking behind the coffin of her only son, weeping. And the Scripture says: “When the Lord saw her, He had compassion on her and said to her, ‘Do not weep’” (Lk 7:13).
We must not forget, in His raising of Lazarus from the dead, the Scripture’s saying: “Jesus wept” (Jn 11:35). Weeping is the deepest expression of compassion and tenderness.
One question remains:
Do God’s tenderness, compassion, and mercy prevent discipline?!
Let us leave the answer to this question to the next issue, if the Lord’s grace allows and we live.
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