Compassionate

Have you ever had a rough day and wished that someone would come and cheer you up? Suppose that someone has just finished raking up their entire yard of leaves into a pile, but before they were able to collect them together into their compost pile a huge gust of wind came through and completely spread the leaves back out again. That would be pretty disheartening and unpleasant, wouldn’t it? Well what if your friends or neighbors knew what had happened and decided to come and rake up those leaves for you once again? That quality that they would be showing would be called “compassion.”

Compassion is deep awareness of the suffering of another, coupled with the wish to relieve it, with additional meanings being mercy, pity, or tenderheartedness.

It is a very nice feeling to have someone comfort you isn’t it? Just to know that someone else cares about you and wants to help ease your suffering is a great feeling indeed. We all go through times in life when we need some love, and compassion is what we need to be filled with towards others.

1 Peter 3:8  “Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:”

When a baby is just a few months old and they are hungry, the only way for them to communicate is to cry and scream until they get some milk, and it is compassion for their child that will cause a parent to get up in the middle of the night and give their baby a bottle of milk.

If we search through the Bible we can find many times where people had come up to Jesus asking Him to do something for them. They might have been suffering from disease and afflictions, and when they came to Jesus He “was moved with compassion” towards the people and healed them. He saw their needs and He helped them.

Now the complete opposite of compassion would be someone who is “hard hearted” or emotionless. Someone with a cold heart who doesn’t show emotion or care about others when they are clearly in need of help or comfort. The Levite and the priest that passed by the injured man in the parable of the Good Samaritan were of this type as they clearly saw someone badly hurt and in need of assistance, yet they did nothing. They had the ability and opportunity to help, but they chose not to.

The Apostle John wrote that if someone has the comforts of the world, plenty of food, clothing, etc, but they see someone in need, and they do nothing to help them, how are they showing the love that Christ has shown?

1 John 3:17  “But whoso hath this world’s good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?”

Compassion is love, simply put, love for your neighbor. Seeing someone in need and you are able to help them, and you do help them. Jesus had compassion on the entire world, because we are all sinners in need of salvation. We needed a way to be rid of our sins, but we couldn’t do it by ourselves. Struggling under the massive weight of our sins, we were weighed down and unable to achieve complete forgiveness. Jesus saw this, and His love for us caused Him to come down to our level, and die to save us from our sins.  That is compassion.

Galatians 6:2  “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”

Love and compassion for others is what this next passage of scripture is about. It is a perfect passage that shows what compassion is.

Matthew 25:34-46  “Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? 

Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.”

We could never do anything so incredible as what Jesus did for us, but we need to do as much as we can to show our love towards others. When we see someone sad we need to try to comfort them. When we see someone sick, we need to take care of them. See someone who clearly needs some love? Don’t keep it all to yourself; show them your love and compassion!

In Christ,

Andrew