A righteous man regardeth the life of his beast: but the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel.
A righteous person regards the life of an animal with compassion, tenderness and thoughtful humane care, while even what the wicked call mercy and tenderness is cruelty in disguise.
Animals are God's creatures and property made to serve and bless people, and because they see and hear, feel fear and suffering, form attachments and respond to care, they deserve kind treatment and must never be made to suffer pain through beating, harsh words, overwork, neglect, improper feeding or exposure.
Mercy to animals comes from having the tenderness of Christ and God's grace in the heart, shown in gentleness and suitable food at regular times, for people are stewards who must represent a kind and pitiful God who watches animals, notices cruel acts and words, records them in heaven and will call abusers to account.
Cruelty to animals brutalizes the doer and trains him to cruelty toward helpless ones under his care, so that one who cannot be patient and kind to a beast cannot be a patient, kind father or Christian, and therefore kindness must be practiced and taught to children until it becomes habitual and causes no needless pain.
The cruel mercy of the wicked is also seen in unsanctified affection that pities, praises and indulges wrongdoers, shields them from plain reproof and correction, and blocks the warnings and reformation necessary for salvation, whereas true love condemns what God condemns and cherishes what He cherishes rather than imagining itself more merciful than God.
Righteous Mercy to Animals
A righteous person regards the life and well-being of an animal with compassion, tenderness, and thoughtful, humane care, while even the supposed kindness and tenderness of the wicked is cruelty in disguise. Genuine mercy is measured by care that protects life from neglect and harmful treatment, and one who has that tenderness in the heart will treat animals with kindness, gentleness, and thoughtful care rather than lashing, beating, scolding, or abusing them when they are weary or do not meet his wishes.
Animals are God's creatures and property, created to benefit, bless, and serve people and given to serve them, not to be abused, and because they see, hear, and use their faculties they deserve kind treatment. They feel fear and suffering, form attachments, can suffer greatly when separated from those who care for them, and their attachment to people can closely resemble human intelligence. Their capacity to follow and respond to a shepherd also shows that they deserve thoughtful, humane treatment.
Causing them pain through harsh treatment or excessive demands is sinful, including lashing, beating, kicking, jerking, scolding, bruising, harsh words, overwork, improper feeding, neglect, and exposure. It includes driving exhausted, thirsty, and wounded animals for miles in heat to slaughter and crowding them into filthy transport without food or water. It includes killing them to eat their flesh as a luxury, which destroys the tenderness people should have toward God's creatures. Balaam's treatment of his beast revealed the spirit controlling him, for animals were created to serve people, but people have no right to cause them pain.
Mercy to animals comes from having the tenderness of Christ and God's grace in the heart, shown in kindness, gentleness, and suitable food in proper amounts at regular times. A heart made tender by Christ would not delight in hurting or bruising animals, and a person with that grace in the heart will not treat animals harshly because they are God's creatures. Delighting in hurting animals or treating them harshly reveals a perverse, hard, unfeeling temper and spirit, the absence of Christianity, and the attributes and ruling of Satan rather than Christ. Even animals respond to the disposition of those who care for them.
People are stewards required to represent a kind, tender, pitiful God. Though dumb animals cannot speak in protest, God watches them as He watches the sparrows, notices cruel words and acts toward them, records every cruel act in the books of heaven, and will call men to account and punish abuse shown to man or beast. Such cruel words and actions are unfit for those who will live in heaven, and the untransformed cruel person as an unfaithful steward lowered by cruelty will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
By repeated cruelty a person brutalizes himself and educates himself to be harsh and cruel toward helpless ones under his care, so that beginning with small animals and continuing as tyranny over helpless creatures trains temper and spirit until anger, impatience, and rage become character. A man who fires up over little annoyances and beats animals to show mastery cannot be a Christian and cannot be a patient, kind, affectionate father, but causes sorrow to others and misery to self. Whether seen in a boy abusing a dog or a man whipping, jerking, and kicking a horse for a small start, such cruelty proves animals that bear abuse without retaliation can prove superior to men made brutish by cruelty. By contrast, human lives are more valuable than cattle, and families would have less misery if fathers cared for wives and children at least as well as for animals.
The verse calls people to practice and teach their children to treat God's creatures mercifully, never causing them needless pain, until kindness becomes habitual. Taking God's creatures' lives to eat their flesh as a luxury is contrary to that mercy, and people should return to the wholesome food given at the beginning.
Wicked Mercy Is Cruel
The second half of the verse means that even what the wicked call mercy and tenderness is cruelty in disguise. Genuine mercy is measured by care that protects life from neglect and harmful treatment, while apparent kindness that leaves harm unchecked is cruel. Applied to sinful people who depend on God to keep them in the right path, this exposes being hard-hearted and unforgiving toward a brother who has done wrong.
Human benevolence apart from God is impulsive, changeable, and unreliable and is not fit to govern events. Even the best acts prompted by the natural heart are faulty. People must not imagine themselves more merciful or just than God, but the safe course is to condemn what God condemns and cherish what He cherishes.
What looks severe in God's destruction of His enemies when judged only from one side also protects those who remain faithful. Human benevolence may overlook persistent rebellion against God and allow the wicked to lead His people into disobedience, so separating the rebellious prevents that leading astray.
Unsanctified, selfish affection that pities, pets, praises, and indulges wrongdoers blinds spiritual discernment, injures the soul, and stands directly in the way of the reformation necessary for salvation. Such affection passes over unholy practices as a light matter, sets light for darkness and darkness for light, shields wrongdoers from plain, thorough reproof and correction, supports deception, and blocks warnings against sin, bringing loss and God's disfavor. True love does not welcome sympathy that opposes the mind and will of God, as shown when Christ would not accept Peter's affectionate plea to spare Himself from mocking, scourging, and death at Jerusalem but rebuked him without excuse as Satan and an offense for savoring the things of men rather than of God.
For sinful people who need God's power to keep them in the right path, being hard-hearted and unforgiving toward a brother who has done wrong is such cruel false mercy. Treating him cruelly contrasts with entrusting judgment to God.
A righteous person regards the life of an animal with compassion, tenderness and thoughtful humane care, while even what the wicked call mercy and tenderness is cruelty in disguise.
Animals are God's creatures and property made to serve and bless people, and because they see and hear, feel fear and suffering, form attachments and respond to care, they deserve kind treatment and must never be made to suffer pain through beating, harsh words, overwork, neglect, improper feeding or exposure.
Mercy to animals comes from having the tenderness of Christ and God's grace in the heart, shown in gentleness and suitable food at regular times, for people are stewards who must represent a kind and pitiful God who watches animals, notices cruel acts and words, records them in heaven and will call abusers to account.
Cruelty to animals brutalizes the doer and trains him to cruelty toward helpless ones under his care, so that one who cannot be patient and kind to a beast cannot be a patient, kind father or Christian, and therefore kindness must be practiced and taught to children until it becomes habitual and causes no needless pain.
The cruel mercy of the wicked is also seen in unsanctified affection that pities, praises and indulges wrongdoers, shields them from plain reproof and correction, and blocks the warnings and reformation necessary for salvation, whereas true love condemns what God condemns and cherishes what He cherishes rather than imagining itself more merciful than God.
Righteous Mercy to Animals
A righteous person regards the life and well-being of an animal with compassion, tenderness, and thoughtful, humane care, while even the supposed kindness and tenderness of the wicked is cruelty in disguise. Genuine mercy is measured by care that protects life from neglect and harmful treatment, and one who has that tenderness in the heart will treat animals with kindness, gentleness, and thoughtful care rather than lashing, beating, scolding, or abusing them when they are weary or do not meet his wishes.
Animals are God's creatures and property, created to benefit, bless, and serve people and given to serve them, not to be abused, and because they see, hear, and use their faculties they deserve kind treatment. They feel fear and suffering, form attachments, can suffer greatly when separated from those who care for them, and their attachment to people can closely resemble human intelligence. Their capacity to follow and respond to a shepherd also shows that they deserve thoughtful, humane treatment.
Causing them pain through harsh treatment or excessive demands is sinful, including lashing, beating, kicking, jerking, scolding, bruising, harsh words, overwork, improper feeding, neglect, and exposure. It includes driving exhausted, thirsty, and wounded animals for miles in heat to slaughter and crowding them into filthy transport without food or water. It includes killing them to eat their flesh as a luxury, which destroys the tenderness people should have toward God's creatures. Balaam's treatment of his beast revealed the spirit controlling him, for animals were created to serve people, but people have no right to cause them pain.
Mercy to animals comes from having the tenderness of Christ and God's grace in the heart, shown in kindness, gentleness, and suitable food in proper amounts at regular times. A heart made tender by Christ would not delight in hurting or bruising animals, and a person with that grace in the heart will not treat animals harshly because they are God's creatures. Delighting in hurting animals or treating them harshly reveals a perverse, hard, unfeeling temper and spirit, the absence of Christianity, and the attributes and ruling of Satan rather than Christ. Even animals respond to the disposition of those who care for them.
People are stewards required to represent a kind, tender, pitiful God. Though dumb animals cannot speak in protest, God watches them as He watches the sparrows, notices cruel words and acts toward them, records every cruel act in the books of heaven, and will call men to account and punish abuse shown to man or beast. Such cruel words and actions are unfit for those who will live in heaven, and the untransformed cruel person as an unfaithful steward lowered by cruelty will never enter the kingdom of heaven.
By repeated cruelty a person brutalizes himself and educates himself to be harsh and cruel toward helpless ones under his care, so that beginning with small animals and continuing as tyranny over helpless creatures trains temper and spirit until anger, impatience, and rage become character. A man who fires up over little annoyances and beats animals to show mastery cannot be a Christian and cannot be a patient, kind, affectionate father, but causes sorrow to others and misery to self. Whether seen in a boy abusing a dog or a man whipping, jerking, and kicking a horse for a small start, such cruelty proves animals that bear abuse without retaliation can prove superior to men made brutish by cruelty. By contrast, human lives are more valuable than cattle, and families would have less misery if fathers cared for wives and children at least as well as for animals.
The verse calls people to practice and teach their children to treat God's creatures mercifully, never causing them needless pain, until kindness becomes habitual. Taking God's creatures' lives to eat their flesh as a luxury is contrary to that mercy, and people should return to the wholesome food given at the beginning.
Wicked Mercy Is Cruel
The second half of the verse means that even what the wicked call mercy and tenderness is cruelty in disguise. Genuine mercy is measured by care that protects life from neglect and harmful treatment, while apparent kindness that leaves harm unchecked is cruel. Applied to sinful people who depend on God to keep them in the right path, this exposes being hard-hearted and unforgiving toward a brother who has done wrong.
Human benevolence apart from God is impulsive, changeable, and unreliable and is not fit to govern events. Even the best acts prompted by the natural heart are faulty. People must not imagine themselves more merciful or just than God, but the safe course is to condemn what God condemns and cherish what He cherishes.
What looks severe in God's destruction of His enemies when judged only from one side also protects those who remain faithful. Human benevolence may overlook persistent rebellion against God and allow the wicked to lead His people into disobedience, so separating the rebellious prevents that leading astray.
Unsanctified, selfish affection that pities, pets, praises, and indulges wrongdoers blinds spiritual discernment, injures the soul, and stands directly in the way of the reformation necessary for salvation. Such affection passes over unholy practices as a light matter, sets light for darkness and darkness for light, shields wrongdoers from plain, thorough reproof and correction, supports deception, and blocks warnings against sin, bringing loss and God's disfavor. True love does not welcome sympathy that opposes the mind and will of God, as shown when Christ would not accept Peter's affectionate plea to spare Himself from mocking, scourging, and death at Jerusalem but rebuked him without excuse as Satan and an offense for savoring the things of men rather than of God.
For sinful people who need God's power to keep them in the right path, being hard-hearted and unforgiving toward a brother who has done wrong is such cruel false mercy. Treating him cruelly contrasts with entrusting judgment to God.