Christian Living

---

God is compassionate

In Mark 1:40 (NKJV) the bible tells a story, "Now a leper came to Him, imploring Him, kneeling down to Him and saying to Him, "If You are willing, You can make me clean," Then Jesus, moved with compassion (my emphasis), stretched out His hand and touched him, and said to him, "I am willing; be cleansed.""


Let's get deep down a moment.

This word compassion is vital to our understanding into God's heart for the poor and hurting. The word is "splagchizomai: to be moved in the inward parts, i.e. to feel compassion."

Jesus himself was compelled deep inside by the needs he saw. Strong's concordance goes on to say the definition of compassion is, "I feel compassion, have pity on, am moved."

This is a first phase that many of us miss. He FELT. Many take feeling and emotion away from life with Christ. They rationalize and theorize but they don't FEEL. They debate and argue but aren't moved. They defend and criticize but are not compassionate.

No wonder they have a challenge with social justice. To them it's a statistic. A theology. Not a feeling. They almost certainly have never peered into the eyes of an orphan or fed a starving family; Have never seen with their own eyes the pain and misery of God's children. If you see that with your own eyes something moves very deep within you. A gut wrenching feeling: compassion.

If you can look upon these atrocities, even hear of them and not be moved there is something wrong. JESUS FELT. Jesus was moved. Jesus cared about the hurting.


Social justice is not a theology; It's the heart of Christ.


Be moved and take action

Compassion is a feeling, a God feeling; a gift. A gift that should move us to action to labor non-stop making a difference in this world. Do a word study on 'compassion' in the bible. It's all over. Many miracles started off saying, "and he had compassion on them."

Colossians 3:12 says, "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Not only is compassion something Christ had. It's something He calls for us to have. He requests us to CLOTHE ourselves (that's an action) with compassion. We all agree with the other virtues: kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. But what about compassion? Why has it become a reason of controversy among Christian circles?

Jesus does not see numbers; He sees people. He doesn't see statistics; He sees individuals. He doesn't see multitudes; He sees the one.

He sees the parentless child. He sees the hungry mother. He sees the unemployed father. He sees the AIDS ridden woman. He sees the abducted woman forced into prostitution. He sees the child laborer. He SEES; And He is MOVED with compassion about it. Moreover, He COMMANDS us to be moved with compassion about it.

My passion it to inspire others to live lives of compassion and reach their dreams of changing the world. Check out our webpage for more great articles and how to articles on reaching your vision. www.justinhayslett.com

---

PLEASE ENCOURAGE AUTHOR BELOW LEAVE COMMENT ON ARTICLE