Jesus did exercise mercy, even as he admonished others in his Sermon on the Mount, saying, “Happy are the merciful, since they will be shown mercy.” (Matt. 5:7) However, Jesus’ exercise of mercy toward sinners was not a condoning of their sins. Rather, it operated in the same compassionate manner as toward those who were physically ill. On one occasion a leper caught sight of Jesus and he fell upon his face and begged him, saying: “Lord, if you just want to, you can make me clean.” And so Jesus stretched out his hand and touched him, saying: “I want to. Be made clean.” Immediately the man’s leprosy vanished from him. Sometimes he told the one who was ill simply to pick up his bed and walk. But in other instances he said instead: “Your sins are forgiven you.”​—Luke 5:12, 13, 20.

God does forgive sins and looks with mercy and compassion upon the children of Adam who were born in sin. (Ps. 51:5) However, the true God revealed himself to Moses as “Jehovah, a God merciful and gracious, . . . pardoning error and transgression and sin, but by no means will he give exemption from punishment.” (Ex. 34:6, 7) Even in the case of King David, with whom Jehovah had made a covenant for the kingdom, God made no exception. David was punished for his sins, but because he was repentant he was also mercifully forgiven. However, Jehovah’s forgiveness does not extend to those who deliberately violate the righteous principles upon which his own throne is established, nor to those who make sinning a way of life. (Compare Hebrews 1:8, 9.) On the contrary. His position is one of active hostility toward such ones and they can by no means escape the judgment he has reserved for them.

7. What proper view should be taken of Jehovah’s mercy, yet how do some view it?

⁷ This should not lead us to conclude that Jehovah is not a God of patience and long-suffering. According to his own testimony, in dealing with the nation of Israel in times past, he says: “I take delight, not in the death of the wicked one, but in that someone wicked turns back from his way and actually keeps living.” (Ezek. 33:11) And, even though some of the wicked take unwise advantage of his patience, even scoff at the warning that one day his long-suffering will come to an end, he continues to put up with it in order that those who are of honest heart may turn to him and be saved.​—2 Pet. 3:3, 4, 9, 15; Rom. 2:4.

8. How does Jehovah’s long-suffering benefit all mankind?

⁸ All mankind, even the wicked, benefit from God’s mercy. He does not withhold from them the things necessary for life. Jesus cited this quality of Jehovah’s undeserved kindness as an example to us, reminding us that our heavenly Father “makes his sun rise upon wicked people and good and makes it rain upon righteous people and unrighteous.” (Matt. 5:45) And when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s law by eating of the forbidden tree of the knowledge of good and bad in the Garden of Eden, mercy toward their unborn offspring prompted Jehovah to allow them to live until children had been born.