The Doctrine of Compassion

Matt.14:14 - And Jesus went forth and saw a great multitude, and was moved with compassion toward them, and he healed their sick.

I visit a cross section of blogs with differing doctrinal views. I read a post from a brother who exhorted compassion by believers. Toward the end he made this prayerful and powerful statement that impacted my spirit.

“Use us in your work to transform us into little Christs.”

Most times when we hear the word doctrine we think of some creed or confession or systematic theology. When we say doctrinal soundness or doctrinal integrity we almost always mean the adherence to a set of teachings related to truth that must elicit faith. In other words we have tethered the word doctrine to believing a set of theological tenants. And in light of this mindset we have relegated works of compassion to a seriously subordinate and neglected position of importance and indeed, practice. These expressions of compassion usually only rise to the level of “bait”, and actually things we must do within the clandestine motivation of evangelism.

But if we are correctly secure with the superiority of redemption against all other doctrines, and if we realize that our entire lives are epistles of that redemption, can we not see that this compassion must be exercised with committed hearts of pathos and concern for human beings, motivated by both redemption and simple, unconditional charity? Should acts of compassion and charity be exclusively the product of evangelistic strategy, or can there be, and should there be, a significant element of pure sympathetic mercy? We as the representatives of Christ have so often been dismissive of indiscriminate humanitarian acts of compassion and help, and even though we must shine Christ in our lives and deeds, the motivation should not always be harnessed to evangelical strategies. God Himself is well capable of using our expressions of charity, even when shared without the open witness we would have hoped, as future stepping stones to draw men to Himself.

Did Jesus ever minister acts of compassion to some who He knew would not embrace Him as Savior and Lord? Of course, and in fact the Incarnate God of all Compassion did works of kindness to Judas Iscariot who was not only His enemy, but ultimately His betrayer. The God who is love cannot help but show even his rebels the kind compassion that reveals who He is. I fear we have taken what was meant to glorify God and minister to needy humans and made it a hostage to our own doctrinal creeds, when in fact compassion is a doctrine in and of itself. And that is the simple truth but profound indictment in so many of our evangelical and fundamental circles that recoils at showing compassion and humanitarian expressions of mercy to sinners, especially sinners that have been singled out as worse than the average, garden variety sinner.

This reveals a disturbing and embarrassing aspect of the walk of faith we have constructed, because it shows that our compassion is not genuinely without preconditions and caveats, it is interconnected with our judgment of the sinner and sometimes comes with heavy handed and clumsy attempts at final stage evangelism. And before you immediately misinterpret what I am saying let us be clear, the redemption of sinners by way of Christ’s cross is paramount and the core of God’s heart, and our commission is the preaching of that gospel. That cannot be compromised.

But somehow we have been deceived into believing that showing compassion and mercy to the lost by way of earthly acts of compassion is compromising that gospel. I am beginning to see them more and more as the overflow of God’s heart of grace and mercy. Let us not forget that it rains on the just and the unjust, and God shows grace and mercy to the most militant of His enemies with no gospel strings attached. The goodness of God leads us to repentance, and it is true beyond controversy that they cannot be saved without hearing the greatest news ever spoken, however binding up the wounds of the poor and needy can and should be in concert with that message of eternal hope. And sometimes when the speaking opportunity isn’t as accommodating as we would have desired, these acts just give expression to the God of all mercy and compassion.

I reject joining with those who would reject Christ in almost any endeavor because that carries with it a counter productive essence that helps and deceives at the same time. But I have seen a laxity and even a reluctance to reach out to people’s needs based upon both an exclusive focus on doctrinal creeds and a confusing disconnect between compassion and the gospel message. Open and earthly deeds of compassion are never to replace the gospel message, but they must be a natural and unbridled expression of that message and the God about Whom the message speaks.

The Old and New Testament make it clear that humanitarian deeds to the world’s needy is a doctrine of the church. This is no suggestion or choice that is presented to believers, this is a mandate to all of us and somehow we have made it a cold part of an evangelical equation. Evangelism will flow out of these and other expressions if sinner’s see and feel the vulnerable compassion and love that doesn't differentiate between kinds of sin, and that comes naturally from a hereditary gene implanted from the Father of all Mercies. Sometimes our contrived humanitarian efforts come across as just that.

But let us forever unveil works of compassion and humanitarian deeds as legitimate doctrines to the church, every bit as legitimate as all the others. We cannot fear being viewed as compromisers and in fact, we cannot let fear stand in the way of ministering to people where they need it most, even if they have brought heartache and suffering upon themselves. Ours is a divine compassion, both in message and in deed. The question we must ask is this,

If we knew that a certain gay man with AIDs would never believe the gospel, but that same man needed a ride once a week to the clinic for treatment, would you or I give him that ride?

The answer to that question probably will reveal if we have the compassion of Christ, or the compassion of evangelism. The compassion of Christ contains the compassion of evangelism, the compassion of evangelism is sometimes missing the compassion of Christ. If we do not exhibit the compassion of Christ, including humanitarian deeds of mercy to all who need them,

we are doctrinal heretics.