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What comes to your mind when I say the word compassion? Put that in your comments today as you’re listening to this devotion. I bet none of you were thinking of the word faith. More likely than not it doesn’t come to mind, when we are talking about love or service.
James 2:14-26 (NIV) What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.
You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? Was not our father Abraham considered righteous for what he did when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did. And the scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as righteousness,” and he was called God’s friend. You see that a person is considered righteous by what they do and not by faith alone.
In the same way, was not even Rahab the prostitute considered righteous for what she did when she gave lodging to the spies and sent them off in a different direction? As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
Yeah – so there’s that… Hmmm, so Pastor Dan, you’re saying that service and love work together through my faith. No – the Bible is actually saying that.
In fact James is so adamant – he is so absolutely certain of it – about faith and deeds working together to express love, both love to God and love to others, that he says faith without deeds is dead. And those should be some strong words for us. Mostly, they don’t because our culture views death differently. But in James’ day, death was a big deal. For instance if you touched a dead person you had to do this entire ritual cleansing thing. There were severe rules about distancing and shouting unclean. And while James is making a case to join faith and deeds, I would make a case that faith and deeds without love is just as dead.
1 Corinthians 13:3 (NLT) If I gave everything I have to the poor and even sacrificed my body to be burned, I could boast about it; but if I didn’t love others, I would have gained nothing.
The thought that I lean into here is compassion. When Jesus walked the earth, He walked in a state of compassion in everything He did.
In the book of Luke, Jesus was asked what are we to do to inherit eternal life? Jesus – being a good Jewish rabbi answers a question with a question. In essence He asks, how do you interpret what the Law of Moses says?
And we all know the answer the religious expert responded with Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, your mind and strength, and Love your neighbor as yourself. Now remember this is my paraphrase. Jesus told him – yep you got it. Then the expert asked, so – who is my neighbor? We need to remember he really didn’t want the answer but wanted to somehow discredit Jesus.
This is Jesus’ reply - Luke 10:30-37 (NIV) In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
Now to you and me today, this may not have been such a touching story past the thought of helping someone who had been injured. But you have to realize that Jesus starts out by obliterating the idea that Samaritans were not good. There was such a hatred for Samaritans, people would not travel through a Samaritan area. They would travel around it – even if it increased the travel exponentially. Not only that but they wouldn’t talk to or do business with someone who was a Samaritan.
What I hear Jesus telling those people then and us today, is that even those who are considered the worst by society are still part of the Kingdom of God. God can change us all from the inside out when we let Him. And anyone can be filled with compassion just like any believer.
So where does that leave us? It leaves us re-thinking what is important in the life of the Church? God has put each one of us right where we are. No matter if we are in the Tri-Cities near where I live, or any other place. He has us there for a reason - to be His Church. Wherever we are planted, we have to ask ourselves: Are we fulfilling the mission that God needs us to fulfill in His kingdom…? Now there’s something to talk about.