Compassion

Compassion is described in Webster’s Dictionary as: 1. A deep awareness of and sympathy for another's suffering, 2. The humane quality of understanding the suffering of others and wanting to do something about it.

No other person in history has had more compassion for others than Jesus the Christ. He never judged anyone. It was his purpose in life to prove to humanity that God is a God of love. Jesus even sat and eat with publicans and sinners. In Math 9:10 “And it came to pass, as Jesus sat at meat in the house, behold, many publicans and sinners came and sat down with him and his disciples”. [Publicans are defined by Webster as 1. The keeper of a public house, (A tavern consisting of a building with a bar and public rooms; often provides light meals.)]

We as Christians and/or Spiritualists are supposed to be compassionate towards one another, which is in direct relationship to our principles. We believe in the brotherhood of man. This tells us that we are no different than any other person on earth. We cry, we eat, we sleep, we work, we play, we get angry, we fight verbally and physically, and then we die.

We are even taught by our parents to be compassionate towards others. We are not to fight over meaningless things, verbally or physically when additional civil conversation can bring about clarity and understanding.

We are to love one another as God love us (John 13:34). When we look at the words of Jesus we understand that we are indeed to be compassionate and loving towards others. But someone said “but we are only human” and being human the word compassion is rarely used or thought about – but we all know about it. There are consequences to not being compassionate. If we have no compassion, the judge will reward us by placing us behind bar for the rest of our life.

It is not a question of whether we believe that the Bible teaches us how to be compassionate and loving people? Loving and generous and being responsible for our daily actions and decisions – part of our responsibility.

Do we fear that if we read and study the Bible that we will succumb to its teachings? Will we have to admit that we are sinners – and not compassionate people? Do we believe that we inherited the original sin of Adam and Eve through just being human? Few of us, if any of us rally think about these things.

Most people on earth don’t accept the Bible or its teachings. Other people may have their own way of worshiping God and they don’t want anyone telling them that they are wrong in their beliefs and the way that they worshiping God. They don’t want anyone telling them that they must set aside their beliefs and accept the teachings of some other religion.

Some people may even believe that all “Christians” are among the most finical people on earth. When Christians read the Bible, they believe that they are reading the absolute word of God and every word in the Bible is absolute truth. They really believe in the teachings of their minister and the creeds and dogmas of their church. They will often tell you that God, and the Bible has saved them from a life of crime and drugs.

What these people are saying may be absolutely true for them. We just don’t know anything about their life. They could have been raised in the slums of New York City or Toronto, L.A. or Chicago. Or raised in an extremely poor family where they had to fight every day of their life, just to survive. Who are we to judge them? We, as Christians and/or Spiritualists, are taught to be compassionate toward these people, our brothers and sisters. Working together to help the poor and infirm, too achieve a little wealth and prosperity in their lives. We are here to learn and to grow spiritually working for spiritual enlightenment; working our way back to the presents of God, the Source of all Creation, Infinite Intelligence.

We are all generally hear to live a life that is disciplined and compassionate, that we do practice our principles of Spiritualism and the Laws of Nature – which are God’s Laws. Why, is it only because we are caught in the web of human life?

We look at others as a contrast between what we are and what we want or don’t want to be. If another person does not do the kinds of things in their life that we believe in, we are not to go about, gently or even harshly, to try and change them.

As I have thought about this word compassion and the Bible, I thought about the story that Jesus told about a man who was traveling to a remote city. The man had to pass through a very dangerous area along the way where the chances of him being molested were very high. As the story goes, the man was beaten and robed by bandits, and left on the roadside to die. It was only after a kind and compassionate man, who was passing along the way, stopped to help the dying man. How many of us would do the same? How many of us would have the compassion to stop and help another person – even on the streets in the slums of New York City? Or would we pass them by with the belief that some one else would help them because we fear for our own lives? We may not even care because it is not someone we know who was injured, or even a friend or family member. Where is our compassion?

The Bible and its teachings have provided us with the meaning of compassion and how we are to live in brotherly love one with another.