Introduction. When tragedy strikes, whether to friends, family, brethren, or even strangers, the hearts of the truly godly feel both pity and compassion forming without any thought. Because we “Love our neighbor as ourselves” our hearts immediately fill with empathy and sympathy for those facing calamities. These “natural affections” have led us to Jesus’ conclusion: “whatever you want men to to do you, do to them.” Hence, this is a vital part of our growth as a Christian and should be carefully monitored!
Because compassion and mercy are a way of life for the spiritually mature, the Holy Spirit took these emotions and created a word to describe the acts we do when we are moved by them. Since we don’t have a word like this in English, we will need to take their concept and understand it when using the English words we have.
When Jesus said when you do your “alms,” (ASV) “charitable deeds,” (KJV) or “give to the poor” (NASB, ESV), He literally meant when you are acting on your emotions of pity, compassion, empathy and mercy. The Scriptures reveal there is a clear progression in our hearts. First, like the priest and Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan, some have lost the compassion and mercy necessary to act. What would cause them to act like this? The most likely explanation is that they didn’t care enough to pay the price to stop and help. Multitudes today have been raised with so much selfishness it has created narcissism. They can’t even see that others have needs because they are so caught up in themselves, they feel nothing for others.
Because compassion and mercy are a way of life for the spiritually mature, the Holy Spirit took these emotions and created a word to describe the acts we do when we are moved by them. Since we don’t have a word like this in English, we will need to take their concept and understand it when using the English words we have.
When Jesus said when you do your “alms,” (ASV) “charitable deeds,” (KJV) or “give to the poor” (NASB, ESV), He literally meant when you are acting on your emotions of pity, compassion, empathy and mercy. The Scriptures reveal there is a clear progression in our hearts. First, like the priest and Levite in the parable of the good Samaritan, some have lost the compassion and mercy necessary to act. What would cause them to act like this? The most likely explanation is that they didn’t care enough to pay the price to stop and help. Multitudes today have been raised with so much selfishness it has created narcissism. They can’t even see that others have needs because they are so caught up in themselves, they feel nothing for others.