It's easy to teach about love; much easier than actually loving! I have a problem - you do too! None of us love enough.
Love is the universal emotional language. Ultimate love is the love God has for his creation. We can never love that much. The difference between God's great love and our own ability to love is the range we call "hate". Much of our hate is directed toward others because they interfere with self-worship; or our own stance of being divinely correct.
Love is operationalized by the Ten Commandments. They actually measure the degree of hate that we have for God and others. If one steals from another they are showing a degree of hatred for that person by taking what is theirs. If they fail to honor the Sabbath, they are loathing God because he says to honor it.
By taking care not to offend people is showing compassion, which is the Golden Rule, "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Nobody wants stolen property. Nobody wants hurt feelings. Everyone wants fair treatment. Nobody wants to die! The opposing ameliorating actions are compassion.
Compassion is being aware of others distress, feeling badly for them and willing to help remove their agony.
I get disappointed in others. If it's because they have wronged me, it's being selfish, and self-pity isn't compassion. When others feelings are scarred and I want to alleviate their pain, that is compassion.
First off, if I offend anyone, I am to reconcile. That's compassion in action.
If someone else offends another they are to be rebuked. Our own personalities are never a good reason to slight another person.
The greatest slight possible is jeopardizing their salvation. The second greatest slight is robbing them of their joy. As such we carry a huge responsibility to think before we act, and then act toward the surest positive outcome. That outcome is to do everything in our power to ensure that another person is led to the Lord and instructed in righteousness!
What if we were the ones seeking truth and those who teach it failed to? It's obvious that teaching truth to those seeking it is paramount to anything. Failure to teach truth to another who is seeking it, is an omission, essentially hateful, remembering that hate is the mere absence of love.
For instance if one fails to teach others about Jesus and the way to salvation, then the one who fails his duty is killing the seeker... forever! It's condemning them to a second death which is eternal and torturous! In this case the sin of omission is worse than murder because scripture says that hate, which is the absence of love, is murder.
Have you murdered anyone recently? If you have failed to tell them about the blood of Jesus as an antidote to death, you have killed them. They will surely die unless another does for them what you should have done.
It is sinful to neglect another soul. That's not compassionate. What if no one had ever told you about Jesus? Where would your hope lie? The most profound act of compassion is sharing the gospel with those who seek it, and admonish those who even are not!
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