What Is Compassion?

What is compassion? Think about that for a moment on your own…It’s a great question, isn’t it? It’s also a very interesting one in the sense that if you were to take a sample of definitions for the word compassion, you’d likely end up with a hundred different versions before too long. To me, that is an even more interesting phenomenon. Like most things in this world, at the hand of the “god of this word”, Satan (2 Corinthians 4:4), compassion has been perverted.For the record, since true compassion is intrinsic to the essence of God, we may find our bearings in His beloved Word. It’s the only way, lest we wearily contemplate myriad attempts by man at defining something already perfectly manifest in Heaven.So, let’s take a quick walk through scripture and nail down this definition once and for all. Like a beautiful rosebush, there is a multitude of ways to approach compassion. Some days, we approach it with a heavy heart for others; whereas, other days, we ponder the plight of others from afar. Whatever the case may be, compassion is something we give. It is directional. It is grace.Grace is always motivated by love. Love cannot help but express itself. Our greatest example, of course, is the Cross. Compassion was right there with love, manifest in Jesus as He hung naked, mocked, and disrespected.We must first recognize that compassion is motivation for sacrifice. We read of Jesus saying, “Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). What scripture reveals is that, in light of The Great Commission (Matthew 28:18-20), our compassion ought to stretch, and will in its maturity, as far as it takes to see a soul saved, “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame” (Hebrews 12:2a). Jesus’ compassion for saving others took Him all the way to His Cross. This is the same Person who said, “Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple” (Luke 14:27).True compassion is always rooted in the Gospel. In this sense, the greatest impetus for compassion is evangelism. One need only consider the alternative to eternal life in Christ Jesus for their compassion to be rekindled. Hell is real.Compassion is amplified when our evangelistic efforts fail, sometimes bringing us to tears the way it did to Jesus. “When He approached Jerusalem, He saw the city and wept over it” (Luke 19:41). Compassion has the ability to transcend the sum total of the sins of our enemies. The more a person is wrapped up in evil, the greater our compassion ought to be, for the further they are from the Truth that would set them free. Jesus lamented, “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, just as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you would not have it” (Luke 13:34)! He came “to seek and to save” (Luke 19:10) and His own people rejected Him. It broke His heart.Compassion never fails, but it can be unsuccessful in achieving its objective. If the goal of saving souls is met with rejection, we are left with a broken heart. At times our love falls on deaf ears the way a parent’s falls on an obnoxious adolescent. As such, sometimes our greatest challenge in life is not losing our compassion for others. It helps to remember that a person walking in the dark cannot possibly know where they are going, regardless of what they proclaim.Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He *said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.”The greatest friend compassion has is perspective. To keep it, we must remember the unbeliever’s plight. They are lost and confused. Many of them are venomous, and it stings when they bite us. Others are pathetic, worn, downtrodden, clingy. We ought to have compassion on them all. We ought to lace our boots up every morning the way good soldiers do, and march right back into battle.This sounds like quite a calling, doesn’t it? Well, my friends, it truly is. Beyond that, though, is the fact that it is a divinely bestowed privilege. That’s another part of compassion that fuels us. We mustn’t ever forget where we have come from, how far the Lord has delivered us by grace. Our greatest temptation seems to be selfishness, something debilitating to compassion.There is relief, thank God. Jesus said, “Do not give what is holy to dogs, and do not throw your pearls before swine, or they will trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you to pieces” (Matthew 7:6). Wait just a minute! Is this contradictory to all that we just pondered? Of course not, my friends. As with all Holy Scripture, it is perfectly complementary and consistent with God’s will for His children. In making this statement, which is consistent with His rejection of the Jews in Matthew 12, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come” (Matthew 12:32), Jesus was establishing a real boundary condition to activities associated with compassion.True compassion is often met with stark rejection. The Word teaches us that there are those in this world who hate the truth. It’s hard to fathom, but this hatred exists, and it meets the evangelist in a way that closes all doors leading to reconciliation with God. Haters are not our friends, they are our enemies. “But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” (Matthew 5:44). This means that although we never stop loving others, our blessing in this situation is that we are relieved of duty. We are to stop charging up certain hills. We leave their fate in the hands of God.But wait, what about this so-called “true compassion” that pivots on saving souls??? There’s another compassion, we might say a final one, which God, in His infinite compassion, extends to the hard of heart. The Bible tells us that there are degrees of punishment in Hell (Matthew 11:20-22; Luke 12:47-48; John 19:11; Hebrews 10:29). The more an unbeliever is evangelized, the greater the responsibility they have to the Truth, even when they reject it. In this sense, God is gracious in asking His evangelists to stop presenting the Gospel to them, for each instance represents yet more evidence against them in the supreme court of Heaven. Let us honor God’s mercy here.So, to answer the question…what is compassion?…The world’s definition of compassion is untethered from true compassion, which is always grounded in the Gospel. The world doesn’t teach a compassion that motivates evangelists. If anything, it demotivates them by robbing them of their passion for saving souls. The world’s version of compassion is an emotional waste basket filled with frustration. The Truth is that only one thing will ever deliver a person from the throes of spiritual death and misery, both in time and eternally, and that is being saved in Christ Jesus.

Compassion is meant to draw people to Christ, to salvation, not make a comfy little resting place for those living in sin. We don’t want unbelievers to be comfortable in their sin, for that’s the exact opposite of true compassion, yet precisely what the world promotes. Compassion looks at the sinner and says, “I’m sorry you’re suffering…let me tell you about Jesus.”Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation;

or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer; and our hope for you is firmly grounded, knowing that as you are sharers of our sufferings, so also you are sharers of our comfort.
Love in Christ,
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Ed Collins