Fuel

We talked about compassion yesterday in church.

Let’s face it. Compassion is sexy today.

It’s talked about in every arena from politics to religion.

Many churches have been making headway the last couple of years into areas of compassion and mercy ministries acknowledging the body of Christ has failed in these areas severely in recent decades. More and more churches are now getting enlisted in social justice, mercy ministries, recovery programs, and outreach to the poor.

I’m glad to see this movement, though I regret it didn’t begin earlier. Now that it’s fashionable, it seems to have made it more attractive for Christians, especially with the younger generation of evangelicals.

I’ve always believed that Christianity without compassion is no Christianity at all.

Compassion is what moved Jesus throughout the gospels.

Back in the mid 90’s when compassion wasn’t so “sexy”, my wife and I piloted a ministry organization geared toward ministering to juvenile offenders, their families, children of inmates, and other at-risk youth. Today, that organization has a volunteer base reaching incarcerated kids all over the country as well as Australia and Puerto Rico.

There were times when we were demonized by “institutional” churches as being para-church, and as a result, not deemed an authentic expression of the local church. It’s a shame that some people still see the church as a building or institution when in reality, wherever you find Christ-followers gathered in his name (the “ekklesia”) reaching out to poor, hurting and afflicted people, there you see the expression of the local church. That may be in a juvenile detention center, it may be in an inner-city apartment complex, it may be in a recovery hospital. The local church in its truest form has its fibers embedded in ministry to the poor, the fatherless, and the oppressed.

In Matthew 9:13, Jesus teaches the religious elite a lesson in compassion. He reminds them of a verse in Hosea that every one of these Pharisees would’ve had memorized: “I desire mercy, and not sacrifice.” The Greek word translated “mercy” here is the word “eleos.” It can also be rendered “compassion.” It denotes kindness or good will towards the miserable and the afflicted, joined with a desire to help them. Contrast this with the word “sacrifice”, the word Jesus used to suggest empty observance of religious rituals and you see the picture Jesus painted of his own mission involved more than having his followers gather together in a building to sing songs of praise. It involves changing the world.

Billy Graham said, “The highest form of worship is the worship of unselfish Christian service. The greatest form of praise is the sound of consecrated feet seeking out the lost and helpless.” I can appreciate that coming from the man who has preached the gospel to more people face to face across this planet than any other person in history.

Compassion is a call to action.

Let’s hope for the gospel’s sake that compassion stays sexy for a long time!