Compassion: Without It You Are Guilty Of Hate

Compassion: Without it you are Guilty of Hate Kelly Durant

I Jn 3:14-18

Compassion is sympathy for the suffering and a desire to help! Do something!

They say that giving a beggar a piece of bread is a civil duty, but to give him a bread with butter on it, now that is compassion! Compassion is a divine quality something that is in all cultures with a certain measure, but the strange thing is that it is also something very much lacking in most cultures today. The level of the spiritual development of a culture or people could be measured by how much compassion they have. But think about it, only Christians throughout time have proven over and over to be the ones to help when there is a need or crisis. As a Christian how much compassion do you have? How much compassion does this community have? I think it lacks a lot!

Are you the center of your universe, or is Jesus love at the center? In order to have compassion, you must have the ability to put yourself into the shoes of the other person. This takes not just a creative mind, but a willing heart! Think about what is inside of you. If you are only full of your wants, your needs, then you are self focused. You have your self as the center of your life, or at the center of the universe. But if you have Jesus at the center of your life & heart, you will have the same heart of compassion that he has, and you will be willing to help anyone, anytime, of any race, like in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Do you, to get what you want, be childlike, intimidate, and hate? Selfishness means no understanding of salvation! The verses we are studying have within their context a relationship of hate connected to the idea of refusing to help someone in need. What is the difference between an adult and a child? A child only wants to get what he wants no matter the situation and they scream to get it. Some kids, even as big as teenagers will yell to their parents, “I hate you!” just to try and get what they want from them, They do not care if they do not have the money or conditions to please them, they are just self focused. Those who hate do it when they see someone else get something they wanted, people hate it when the attention and money they wanted goes to a good cause.

Hate=Murder: not giving to others in need! In the state of Alaska, if a person s on the street with a car motor stalled, by law you must stop and pick up that person. The reason for this is that person could actually freeze to death and die in some -30 below 0 temperatures with 10 minutes! Not helping someone with a need is not only heartless and insensitive. But a real sacrifice to help someone with a need, that is a must, and people usually receive honor and praise for being loving and saving someone’s live or situation!

Only love, not hate makes you pass from death to life! What we do in this life brings us either praise or scorn from those around us, and from God too. The people who let their selves be touched by Jesus love to the point that they want to be like Him, implies they have entered into life with Him. However, hate, a which is a violent rejection, is a carnal, natural occurring human quality, but no one really admires this horrible quality. These are those who are terrorists, those that are racists and make wars, are those that bring death and suffering to others and themselves. Everyone is on one path or the other, life, or death!

Who do you hate secretly? Have you ever really tried to look deep into your heart as to why you do not like someone or somebody? You have undiscovered bitternesses, everyone does, and you need to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to you what they are so you can be free, as hate manifests itself in bitterness. These past things separate you from the God of love. I have discovered many people secretly hate pastors, or sincere Christian leaders because they are envious of their power and influence over people. Jesus warned that if they hated Him, they will hate you also.

Love and compassion is giving your life in service to Jesus! There is no society where selfishness is really worshiped as virtue, all cultures value sacrifice to others. But sacrifice should be done in the way Jesus defined it in Matt 25, caring for the hungry, thirsty, and poor. Compare this bad example of sacrifice. Imagine how in India with the Hindu religion the tradition has been that wives will allow their selves to be burned alive with their husbands dead bodies when they are at their funerals. That is a type of sacrifice our God of love does not desire, they do this because their idea of God is sadly distorted from the truth of God. Do you see how Jesus redefines what compassion and sacrifice really should be?