Living in an Empathetic World (pt. 1): The Compassionate Heart of God
Introduction
Over the last five years we’ve seen Christians and churches bend to the secular culture. Leaders I once respected argued against attending church during Covid but proudly walked with BLM. It seems each year I find out about another Christian friend from college who advocates for transgenderism, abortion, and even leaves the faith. I believe one reason for this weakening of the church is because of an emphasis of untethered empathy. The call to sympathy and empathy are strong among Christians. Sympathy, pity, and compassion are great virtues, which means they are greatly dangerous when poisoned.
This brief series seeks to equip you on how to live faithfully in a world of untethered empathy. I have been greatly influenced by the work of Joe Rigney with this subject (as well as Paul Bloom and Edwin Friedman). If you wish, I can point you to article and sermons that would benefit you. Today, my objective is to show you how compassion, pity, and sympathy (I will use these words interchangeably) come from the heart of God and should be pursued by the heart of Christians. Next week, I want to show you how compassion, sympathy, and pity can be poisoned. Lastly, I will give some counsel on how to live faithfully in an emotionally charged world. So, today let’s look at how God is compassionate and calls His people to His compassion.
The Passage
The Lord is gracious and merciful; Slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, And His mercies are over all His works. Psalm 145:8–9
God is Good
God is good. All that He does is good. When God created the world, that was good. God created the world because he is good, and He wanted to create. God saves sinners because he is good, and he wants to save. He does all these good things because He enjoys the good that He is and does. Because God is good and joyous, He shares His goodness to creatures.
When you understand that God is good, all of His other attributes make sense. God is love because God shares His goodness. God is just because God protects His goodness. God is righteous because God all of God’s actions are morally good. So, when we get to God’s grace and compassion, we see that God gives good gifts to those who do not deserve it. This is why the psalmist says, “God is good to all, His mercies are over all His works.” It’s one thing for God to share His goodness once to sinners who don’t deserve it, it’s quite another thing to share goodness trillions of times per day to people who don’t deserve it. God is so good, He made apples, sugar cane, flour, and butter so we could eat a delicious apple pie and say, “wow! That’s good!” God is so good, He made your black lab friendly and the flowers in your flower bed bright.
God is Compassionate
C.S. Lewis said in The Great Divorce that “pity was meant to be a spur that drives joy to help misery.” I believe Lewis’s definition fits with this Psalm and the rest of scripture. God sees our misery, sin, and evil nature. God then gives good gifts again. Each day God gives you breath in your lungs is a merciful day. You didn’t do anything to earn waking up today. Actually, you earned death by the number of sins you committed yesterday. But today, God mercifully heaped good gifts on you. And most of us don’t even notice.
God’s grace and mercy are His to give because He IS gracious and merciful. He gives mercy according to His will and prerogative (Ex 33:19; Rom 9:15). No one can earn God’s mercy or compassion. What makes God’s mercy merciful is that He freely gives it.
Jesus perfectly models compassion in His ministry. Our scripture reading in Luke 7 was a great example of Jesus’ seeing misery (the grieving woman) responds with pity (He felt compassion for her) and raised her son back to life (He gives her a good, joyous gift). Paul summarizes Jesus’ entire ministry as a display of sympathy.
For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrews 4:15–16
Notice, Jesus sees our weakness, our misery and gives us help at His throne of grace. Paul says later on in Hebrews that Jesus endured the shame of the cross so that He could sit at that throne of grace to help us.
fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:2
Sympathy is a spur that drives joy to help misery. True compassion defined by Jesus sees two things at the same time. True compassion sees the misery of another person. True compassion also sees the ultimate good of that person.
Compassion is a Christian Virtue
God made us in His image to glorify Him. He made us to illustrate some of His attributes through the pursuit of virtue. We illustrate the goodness of God when we live virtuous lives. Because God is wise, Christians should pursue the virtue of wisdom. Because God is compassionate, we should pursue the virtue of compassion. God has ordered everyday life so that we mature in virtue as we mature in life. For example, one reason God created the family is so that we could imitate the compassionate love of our heavenly father.
Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him. Psalm 103:13
So, God created the world so that we would grow in virtue as we live life. But the fall of man broke this process in two big ways. First, we neglect the virtue. Instead of pursuing compassion, we pursue selfishness. Instead of joy moving outward, we hoard it inward. Instead acting sympathetic, we act apathetic. The second way the fall broke virtues like compassion is by overemphasizing it. When compassion is pursued at all costs, you get renegade empathy. My future sermons will focus on the problem of empathy. But for today, just know that because compassion is a God-given virtue, it must be embodied according to His standards by the power of His gospel.
So, as those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved, put on a heart of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, whoever has a complaint against anyone; just as the Lord forgave you, so also should you. Beyond all these things put on love, which is the perfect bond of unity. Colossians 3:12–14
True compassion needs two eyes in order to properly see. With one eye we see the misery of another person and with another we see the ultimate good of that person. In the context of the church here in Colossians 3 it means, we need to see the needs of the church and see what will truly alleviate those needs.
Conclusion
You can only spot a counterfeit hundred dollar by comparing it to the real deal. The rest of this series will focus on how virtues like compassion, pity, and sympathy can destroy families, churches, and institutions when they go rogue. But in order for you to see counterfeit virtues, you need to first appreciate the standard. Here is your homework for this week. First, each day this week list 20 different things that God has given you. After you list evidence of God’s compassion, thank Him for it. Second, when you see someone in misery, seek to share the joy of God with them.