Thursday, June 23, 2011

Compassion

           There are a number of passages in Scripture where we see that God is compassionate towards  people.  There are other passages were Jesus uses parables to teach people about compassion, and there are times when God calls us all to have compassion for others. 
            Some of my favorite versus are when Jesus is moved with compassion towards a group of people or towards a person he is talking to.  Like in Luke 7:13 " And when the Lord saw her, he had compassion on her, and said unto her, Weep not."   What I love about the miracle that Jesus performed here is that he didn't do it to impress anyone or to cause people to worship him, but he did it because he had compassion.  His motives were not self centered but centered on the woman.  This is God's compassion.  Not something that is selfish or proud, but something that loves, that cares, that wants to comfort someone. 
            God has compassion on Israel throughout Scripture as well.  They didn't deserve it, they did nothing to earn it, they were completely against God at times, but he would punish them and have compassion on them. He would always restore his chosen people because of his love for them.  In 2 Kings 13:23 we see God having compassion on the nation of Israel. 
            I don't know if we can fully understand the compassion that God has, because it comes from a place of love and we can't fully understand the love of God.  If God did not love, he could not have compassion.  He would condemn, we would destroy relentlessly, because there would be nothing in his nature to stop him.  But because God loves, his anger and judgment are relieved by love and compassion.  All of God's characteristics are so closely linked to his love.  God is love and that means that God is many other things, especially compassionate.  His compassion doesn't have limitations, it doesn't have a certain type of person as its focus.  Often times his compassion was strongest towards children, widows, and the poor.  This is where God's heart for the world is seen in powerful ways.  His compassion for those specific things is seen throughout Scripture.  I don't think there is any denying that. 
            What do we do with this knowledge of God's compassion?  Are we fine in simply knowing this truth or do we actually attempt to be like God in this area?  The most important thing to remember about compassion is that it should be a verb and never just a noun.  To have compassion without action is not compassion at all.  Anytime we hear about Jesus or God the Father having compassion, there was action involved.  Jesus would perform a miracle out of compassion or God would restore a nation out of compassion.  His compassion was never just compassion.  It always meant that God was going to do something.  It always meant that Jesus would come through.  When God has compassion things change, miracles happen, people are restored.  So why is there so much evil in the world?  Perhaps God is waiting for his followers to be the ones to act out his compassion.   Maybe he's waiting for people to be filled with his compassion so that they have no other choice but to change things.  People so in tuned with the heart of God that they can't do anything else until that compassion is released.  


How can you look at something like this and not think God has compassion.  He gave us Hawaii, I mean come on.  

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