How important is compassion in a Christian’s heart?
PROTECTED CONTENT
If you’re a current subscriber, log in below. If you would like to subscribe, please click the subscribe tab above.
Username and Password Help
Please enter your email and we will send you a password reset link.
Faith Fitness
Bro. Sam Kaufman
Some people say Christianity is about a relationship rather than religion.
It’s true that a relationship with God through being born again is required to enter the kingdom of God.
But what does the Bible say about religion?
The Book of James provides insight into that question. Specifically, James 1:27 describes pure and undefiled religion.
The verse states, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.”
In other words, showing compassion through God and holiness are the hallmarks of pure religion in God’s sight.
Love is involved in both. Jesus said if we love Him, we will keep His commandments and keep ourselves unspotted from the world.
A Christian’s life must show the genuine love for humans that stems from a relationship with God. That love will motivate true Christians to action to meet the need.
Their hearts will go out to children who are fatherless or to a wife who lost her spouse. They’ll do what they can to help and comfort the afflicted.
Just how important is compassion in a Christian’s heart? It is basically the proof in the pudding. Without a love for humanity – including those from all kindreds and races – it could be questioned if Christ truly dwells in the heart.
We must be saved by faith in God’s grace through Jesus’ blood for the remission of sins. Without that experience, we don’t have spiritual life within us.
But once His royal blood flows through our veins, our works change.
James said that he would show his faith by his works, which were a result of Jesus Christ now living within.
Through the born again experience and sanctification, former sinful works depart, while other good works through Christ emerge.
The judgment of the sheep and goats in Matthew 25 reveals the true heart condition.
The difference between the two was whether they did or didn’t show compassion to folks in adverse conditions.
Jesus said this to the sheep: “For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in.”
They also visited those in prison.
The sheep ask Jesus when was it that they saw Him in those conditions.
“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.”
The goats are just the opposite. They did nothing to meet the need when they saw it. Eternity hinges on it.
The sheep will inherit the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation of the world. The goats will go away into everlasting punishment. Jesus will tell them to “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.”
Another example of the importance of Christians showing compassion is the Good Samaritan man who assisted the man who “went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment, and wounded him, and departed, leaving him half dead.”
Though Jewish leaders walked by the man without helping him, the Samaritan’s heart was touched by the need.
That compassion motivated him to action. He bound up the man’s wounds, set him on his own beast, brought him to an inn, and took care of him.
Jesus asked, “Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.”
