Meditation
TRUE COMPASSION Dr. Joseph Stowell
And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and downcast like sheep without a shepherd. (Matt. 9:36) NASB 1977
Several words are used in Scripture to translate our English word compassion. Their meanings in both Hebrew and Greek are highly instructive. Two basic words are used in the Old Testament, one of which means “to bear, to become responsible for, to spare someone from trouble.”
This Hebrew word deals mainly with our actions. The second Hebrew term is more attitudinal. It means “to be soft, gentle.” It is sometimes translated “womb” and also means to “be wide” in encompassing others and their needs.
The leading word for compassion in the New Testament means “that emotion aroused by contact with affliction.” it is the Greek word used to translate the Old Testament concept of God’s loyal, unfailing covenant love. The stress in this particular word is on the action that flows out of our being as we are touched by another’s affliction.
In fact, the difference between sympathy and biblical compassion is that biblical compassion – true compassion – always leads to action. Compassion is not measured by how we feel by what we do in response to how we feel.
We might define compassion as our commitment to activate ourselves as channels of God’s love, mercy, and grace in tender, thoughtful,
understanding acts of help, deliverance, forgiveness, and restoration toward those in need. Compassion really is God’s love, mercy, and grace looking for a place to get busy. Compassion asks, “What can I do to help?
God’s compassion offers help to all who are in need. He is not like those who withhold a healing, helping hand behind the excuse of their own interests. It looks like from the point of view of those who are hurting and refuses to callously walk away,
casting blame and guilt on the broken. His compassion never takes sin lightly or discounts His sense of justice. But it never forgets that mercy and grace are gifts of love that offer help and hope before judgement.
I am struck that some of us who have so wonderfully received His compassion are so seemingly uninterested in passing it on to others.