The best definition of mercy is not found in a book on gifts, but in a book on personality types. If we are looking for a description of mercy we will not find any better than the portrait of the ISFP in Please Understand Me:
The gift of mercy is easy to identify in the type descriptions, but sometimes difficult to identify in practice because many without the gift will identify with mercy. These are usually people with gifts such as encouragement, shepherding, discernment, or hospitality. They will identify with mercy because their gifts often come with a great deal of empathy. This empathy, however, is a means to an end—it is empathy in service to their actual gift. With the shepherd, for example, empathy (identifying and sharing anothers thoughts and feelings) is necessary for providing long-term spiritual guidance. With encouragement, it is necessary to empathize to know where encouragement is needed, and with hospitality to better provide for immediate needs.
The ISFP is the only type to have mercy as an end in itself:
Summary: For each of the sixteen personality types there is a theme or set of related themes that run through the various descriptions of that type. For the ISFP mercy or kindness is only a secondary or even tertiary theme. The primary theme is either that of a free spirit or of an artist (in a broad sense a painter, musician, dancer, or chef is each an artist in their own field). “Composers [Keirsey’s word for the ISFP] are attuned to sensory variation, which gives them an extraordinary ability to work with the slightest nuances of color, tone, texture, aroma, and flavor[3].” It seems that the ISFPs ability to sense and appreciate other people correlates with an ability to sense and appreciate all things, and this shows up in an artistic sensibility.
It is not clear, however, why the gift associated with some types shows up as a major theme, and for other types it is only a minor theme. It may be that the words God has given us to represent these abilities are not equally broad in their application. Perhaps mercy is not as representative of the whole personality of the ISFP as hospitality is for the ESFJ. It is also possible, though, that without the lens of scripture our view of people can be distorted. The ability to show mercy may not be as interesting to us as an artistic sensibility, so what should be a secondary theme could be magnified to prominence. This is only speculation, and whatever explanation is correct, the gift of mercy is a decent to good match with the ISFP personality.
References
[1] Keirsey and Bates, Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis 1978), 205.
[2] Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen, Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job (New York: Delacorte Press, 1992), 331.
[3] David Keirsey, Please Understand Me II (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis, 1998), 72.
The ISFP has to be the kindest of all the types with no near competitors. The kindness is unconditional. Here is sympathy, of which we are all capable, carried to its most extreme form. The ISFP is especially sensitive to the pain and suffering of others and, like St. Francis of Assisi, with sympathetic impulsivity gives freely to the sufferer.[1]
The gift of mercy is easy to identify in the type descriptions, but sometimes difficult to identify in practice because many without the gift will identify with mercy. These are usually people with gifts such as encouragement, shepherding, discernment, or hospitality. They will identify with mercy because their gifts often come with a great deal of empathy. This empathy, however, is a means to an end—it is empathy in service to their actual gift. With the shepherd, for example, empathy (identifying and sharing anothers thoughts and feelings) is necessary for providing long-term spiritual guidance. With encouragement, it is necessary to empathize to know where encouragement is needed, and with hospitality to better provide for immediate needs.
The ISFP is the only type to have mercy as an end in itself:
...it is this type more than any of the others whose style is to stand by another person (or plant or animal), with no intention to influence it, criticize it, or change it—perhaps not even to interact with it—only to be in its presence. Other types can hardly believe the ISFPs lack of intentions, let alone trust it. There must be some hidden motives, they believe. Surprisingly enough, there aren’t.[2]
Summary: For each of the sixteen personality types there is a theme or set of related themes that run through the various descriptions of that type. For the ISFP mercy or kindness is only a secondary or even tertiary theme. The primary theme is either that of a free spirit or of an artist (in a broad sense a painter, musician, dancer, or chef is each an artist in their own field). “Composers [Keirsey’s word for the ISFP] are attuned to sensory variation, which gives them an extraordinary ability to work with the slightest nuances of color, tone, texture, aroma, and flavor[3].” It seems that the ISFPs ability to sense and appreciate other people correlates with an ability to sense and appreciate all things, and this shows up in an artistic sensibility.
It is not clear, however, why the gift associated with some types shows up as a major theme, and for other types it is only a minor theme. It may be that the words God has given us to represent these abilities are not equally broad in their application. Perhaps mercy is not as representative of the whole personality of the ISFP as hospitality is for the ESFJ. It is also possible, though, that without the lens of scripture our view of people can be distorted. The ability to show mercy may not be as interesting to us as an artistic sensibility, so what should be a secondary theme could be magnified to prominence. This is only speculation, and whatever explanation is correct, the gift of mercy is a decent to good match with the ISFP personality.
References
[1] Keirsey and Bates, Please Understand Me: Character and Temperament Types (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis 1978), 205.
[2] Otto Kroeger and Janet M. Thuesen, Type Talk at Work: How the 16 Personality Types Determine Your Success on the Job (New York: Delacorte Press, 1992), 331.
[3] David Keirsey, Please Understand Me II (Del Mar, CA: Prometheus Nemesis, 1998), 72.
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