Matthew 5:7 teaches that people who show mercy to others will themselves receive mercy in return. Jesus says this as part of the Sermon on the Mount, the long teaching he gave to his disciples and to the crowds gathered on a hillside in Galilee. He speaks it to people who are learning what life looks like under God’s rule, and he describes the kind of person who is already growing into that life.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy.
Matthew 5:7 (WEB)
What Matthew 5:7 Means
The word “merciful” describes someone who responds to another person’s need, weakness or wrong with compassion rather than hardness. It is more than a feeling of pity. It shows up in what a person does: forgiving a debt, bearing with a difficult family member, helping a stranger who cannot repay, or refusing to gloat over someone else’s failure. Jesus calls these people “blessed,” meaning they are in a good and favored state, not merely lucky.
The second half of the verse says such people “shall obtain mercy.” The future tense points to God’s dealings with them, both now and in the final judgment. The verse does not say that showing mercy buys God’s favor or that mercy will always come back to us from other people in the way we hope. It is a statement about how God treats the merciful, and it fits with the rest of Jesus’s teaching that the forgiven must also forgive (Matthew 6:14-15).
So the verse promises that mercy is not a dead end. The person who gives it stands in a relationship with a God who is merciful himself, and that relationship carries real consequences. It does not promise that every merciful act will be repaid on earth in the form we expect.
The Context of Matthew 5:7
The Gospel of Matthew was written for a community that knew the Hebrew Scriptures well and wanted to see how Jesus fulfilled them. Its author is traditionally identified as Matthew, one of the twelve disciples, though most scholars treat that as a tradition rather than something the text states outright. The Sermon on the Mount opens with a series of “blessed” statements, the Beatitudes, which overturn common ideas about who is truly favored by God. Verse 7 sits in the middle of this list.
The verses just before and after it help clarify its meaning. Verse 6 speaks of those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, and verse 8 speaks of the pure in heart who will see God. Mercy is placed between a deep desire for what is right and a sincere inner purity, which suggests that merciful action grows out of a heart turned toward God. Read this way, Matthew 5:7 describes the outward shape of a life that has been changed from within.
Key Phrases in Matthew 5:7
Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does the LORD require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?
(WEB)
This verse names justice, kindness and humble walking with God as the heart of what the Lord requires. The word translated “kindness” here carries the same covenant warmth that underlies mercy, and Micah shows that merciful living is a central expression of faithfulness to God.
Luke 6:36
“Therefore be merciful, even as your Father is also merciful.
(WEB)
Luke records a similar teaching of Jesus and grounds it directly in the Father’s own character. Believers are called to be merciful because God is merciful, which helps explain why the merciful in Matthew 5:7 receive mercy in return.
A Short Prayer From Matthew 5:7
Father, you have shown mercy to me in ways I did not deserve, and I thank you for it. Teach me to see the people around me with the same compassion you have shown me. When I am tempted to hold grudges or to demand what I think I am owed, remind me of the mercy I have received. Help me to be gentle and patient, trusting that you see every act of kindness and that you are faithful to your promises. Amen.
