Compassion

This week we studied "Compassion" using the video of Dr. David Jeremiah. I believe the good doctor was half-way there, but missed the basic point of compassion. He focused merely on the Good Samaritan, and not the ultimate compassion, our suffering with Jesus as we present ourselves a "living sacrfice" (Rom 12:1). That sacrifice is compassion for God's "Name" - the God/man "called Jesus" (Luke 2:21).

The disposition of a Christian should be "compassionate" marking the experience as genuine. "Compassion" is the willingness to come to the aid of those in distress. That comes about by sympathizing with their turmoil. I hesitate using the word "sympathize" because it is more empathetic -  feeling their pain. Compassion is operationalizing the Golden Rule:

Mat 7:12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.

The Golden Rule has always been the rule: 

Lev 19:18 Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself: I am the Lord.

Hence, loving thy neighbor is tantamount to "whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them."

John seemed to contradict himself with these two verses:

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.

2 John 1:5 And now I beseech thee, lady, not as though I wrote a new commandment unto thee, but that which we had from the beginning, that we love one another. 

We see from Lev 19:18 that the command to love our neighbors is ancient, thus, not a new commandment! Was John confused? Hardly - he explained it well:

1 John 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

John implied that that commandment always was, but is new because before Christ, the Jews failed to practice it. John was declaring that those who know Jesus will practice brotherly love, not because they must but because it's their heart's desire! The newness was not in the letter of the law but the willingness to love without being coerced into it! Christians are to love others, not because of the law but in spite of it.

Let me give an example. If a man is honest only because he fears punishment, his honesty is not his but belongs to the law. If a man is honest because he empathizes with the victim, then the honesty is his own. The difference is compulsion compared to willingness. Those with a "circumcised heart" are willing to love because that became the creature's new nature. It was always so:

Deut 10:16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked. 

Deut 30:6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. 

(Note that Deut 30:6 is the Greatest Commandment!) Verse 10:16 allows that we must circumcise our hearts but 30:6 assigns the task to God. Indeed, God will circumcise the heart if we are willing to let him because we want that!

As you can see, "circumcision of the heart" was always God's will. It was symbolized by "circumcision of the foreskin" because the genitals were unclean and the focus of mankind's attention. Likewise, after Christ's coming, "circumcision of the heart" was the born-again experience symbolized by baptism - washing away the filth of the old creature and becoming new.

The new creature, with selfishness washed away, becomes a compassionate creature if the experience was genuine. It is God who bestows the compassion but it is man who operationalizes it. God gifts it; Christians execute it just like "circumcision of the heart".

With circumcision of the flesh, God required it and man did it. They were compelled to do so because being "stiff-necked" they had not the circumcised heart to do it willingly. With circumcision of the heart, God invokes the desire but man must assist with the sword - he reads the Word and responds of his own volition:

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

It's the Word of God which circumcises the heart. It is not dull and blunt but "sharper than a two-edged sword!"  When a Christian reads the Word of God, if it's sharpness is tested, the desire to change should come about. The Word slices through the flesh and reveals the soul and spirit!

Sacred literature relates that before original sin, mankind had a different covering. I contend that divine flesh which we will see again in Glory is our soul. The flesh was provided for mankind to live in the world. It's there to protect from the elements as well as suffer for Adam's sin. Our flesh is a constant reminder to obey willingly as we're tempted in the flesh. At death, the flesh will no longer comfort nor plague us!

Our plague right now is a lack of compassion. The etymology of compassion is from the Greek compati - "to suffer with".  Who are we to "suffer with?" I resort back to the Ten Commandments: "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain; for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (I commented on this command earlier in my blog http://kentuckyherrin.blogspot.com/2017/12/the-reverence-of-gods-name.html). I believe that "taking the Lord's Name - "Jesus" in vain (blasphemy) withholds salvation from those who take the Name's death frivolously. (God is without name but "is called Jesus").

Claiming to be disciples of Christ but not sympathizing with the agony of Christ, is taking the Lord's sacrifice as being without merit. To be a Christian, we must have compassion on Jesus - suffering with Him! We must contemplate Jesus's body and blood, and do that as he said, "in remembrance of me":

Luke 22:19 And he took bread, and gave thanks, and brake it, and gave unto them, saying, This is my body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of me.

What are we to remember? The Passion of Jesus - the time from his coming to Jerusalem to his crucifixion. What are we to respond to Jesus's passion? We are to "suffer with him". When we commemorate the Last Supper, that's when we have compassion. Those who "unworthily" take the body and blood of Christ, take the Lord's sacrfice in vain.

1 Cor 11:27 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.

This, I believe, is to what the Third Commandment refers! Not having compassion on Jesus's compassion is a violation of the Third Commandment. Jesus's passion - his suffering, was the ultimate show of love for mankind. We must, in our minds, suffer with Jesus as we take the wine and bread to remember him. When I take the elements, as I partake of each, I think on Jesus's passion for me. By not taking his body and blood frivolously, I am compassionate; thus worthy of taking the elements.

We think of compassion as for our neighbor - our fellow man. That is compassionate in humanism. Christians must have compassion for right reasons! If we're have not compassion for Jesus, our compassion for our fellow man is in vain! We can see that reality with the Bible story of the rich young ruler, whose focus was on his neighbors but not God.

Dr. Jeremiah spoke on compassion for our fellow man. That is good. I write on compassion for Jesus's Passion. That is better because the former without the latter is the work of man.