Submitted by David Miller
One of the most
important characteristics of God is that He is compassionate. When God sees
people, who are hurting and in need, He is moved to help them. This is
compassion. God is not cold and distant to those who are hurting. He cares deeply
for them. Like many of God’s attributes, compassion reveals the God of the
Bible to be a God who is intimately in touch with the needs of His people even
today.
Compassion is so
important to God’s nature that it is the first word He uses to describe Himself.
In Exodus, Moses asked God to reveal Himself to the leader of Israel. God
answered his request. God begins His
self-definition by using his personal name, Yahweh. After that, God says this
about Himself, “The God of compassion and mercy!”
Exodus 34:6 (NLT). The first character quality that God lists
is compassion. He doesn’t say king, holy, gracious or even loving, even though
all those words certainly describe God. He uses compassion.
God helps
hurting people. He helps the poor, the oppressed, and the fatherless. And He
helps those who are hurting because of their own sin. James
5:11 says, “The Lord is full of compassion and mercy.” Far from
giving us what we deserve, God shows us mercy and forgiveness.
Jesus had
this same sort of compassion in His own life. When Jesus looked upon the crowds
of hurting people, He had compassion on them.
His compassion led Him to minister to people’s physical and spiritual
needs. He healed the sick and cast out demons because of His compassion toward
people. Jesus was moved to help people even to the point of death on the
cross.
We are recipients of
God’s compassion. Because we have
received, God wants us to extend compassion to others. In Luke
6:36, Jesus commands us, “You must be compassionate, just as your Father is
compassionate.” Christians must be known for their compassion,
like Jesus, meeting people’s physical and spiritual needs. In fact, showing
compassion to those in need is evidence that a person is a Christian. By being compassionate to others, we are
truly allowing Jesus to live not only in us, but through us.
