This will be true both now and in the day of judgment, alike from men and from God. The principle of the golden rule (ch. 7:12) applies both to our treatment of others and to the kind of treatment they accord us in return. The cruel, hardhearted, mean-spirited man rarely receives kind and merciful treatment at the hand of his fellow man. But how often those who are kind and considerate of the needs and feelings of others find that the world often repays them in kind.

 Gr. eleēmones, “pitiful,” “merciful,” “compassionate.” In Heb. 2:17 Christ is said to be a “merciful [eleēmon] and faithful high priest.” Our English word “eleemosynary,” meaning “relating or devoted to charity or alms,” is derived, through the Latin, from this word. The mercy of which Christ here speaks is an active manward virtue. It is of little value until it takes the form of merciful deeds. In Matt. 25:31-46 deeds of mercy are presented as being the test of admission to the kingdom of glory. James includes deeds of mercy in his definition of “pure religion” (James 1:27). Micah (ch. 6:8) sums up man’s obligation to God and to his fellow men as “to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly” with God. Note that Micah, like Christ, mentions both humility before God and mercy toward men. These may be compared with the two commandments on which “all the law and the prophets” hang (Matt. 22:40).