“Christian Compassion,” by the Editors of Christianity Today, Jan. 29, 1965

“Christian Compassion,” by the Editors of Christianity Today, Jan. 29, 1965

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This warning was not heeded in 1965, hence the rejection of Christianity by today’s young.

EXCERPT: When all of evangelicalism learns to match its zeal for the proclamation of the Gospel and its shining record of good works abroad with active compassion for the alleviation of injustice and human deprivation at home, it will move forward in a resurgence of power. Those who proclaim sound doctrine cannot escape the test of reality. Evangelicalism is not exempt from Jesus’ criterion, “By their fruits you shall know them.” Not all fundamentals are doctrinal. If the fundamental of compassion has sometimes been lacking in evangelical life and practice, let it be restored, even though to restore it may be costly.

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To be insensitive to the needs of others is for Christians a denial of who they are and of what their Lord requires of them. If the main theme of Scripture is redemption, united to it as effect to cause is the theme of responsibility for one’s neighbor. From the question in Genesis 4, “Am I my brother’s keeper?,” through the epistles, the Bible demands concern for the well-being of others.

Woven into the very fabric of Christianity is compassion. At the beginning of his ministry, Jesus applied to himself the words of Isaiah, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.” At the heart of Jesus’ ministry was concern for the individual. He left the ninety and nine and sought the one. For him the individual had immeasurable worth; he died not for an impersonal mass of humanity but for persons.

Paul’s exhortation, “Have this mind among yourselves, which you have in Christ Jesus,” points to the supreme example of unselfishness who laid aside the insignia of his divine majesty and became obedient unto death. Our Lord’s word to his disciples, “If any man would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me,” demands selfless living. Moreover, Christ spoke in terms of his own identification with the deprived and underprivileged: “I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.… Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brethren you did it to me … as you did it not to one of the least of these, you did it not to me.”

Involvement in the lives of others is an essential element of Christian compassion. To cherish one’s own rights without willingness to be personally involved in the need and deprivation of others is a kind of negative testimony that keeps those from listening to the Gospel who need it most. If the world feels that we who stand for doctrinal purity lack compassion for the wounds of the world, it will pay little attention to what we say.

Distortion of truth is always dangerous. Half-truths are never less than deceptive. Evangelicals justly criticize the social gospel as a half-truth. There is only one Gospel, and that is the Good News of salvation through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. To insist upon this is not to deny the social aspect of Christianity. It is simply to stand with the Apostle who warned the Galatians so vehemently against any other gospel than that which he had taught them. To refuse to allow the social gospel to supplant the Gospel does not cancel the command of God for Christians to help those in need.

Evangelicals also may fall into the snare of the half-truth in respect to the practice of Christian compassion. Whereas liberalism has tended to substitute for the Gospel itself the compassionate result of the Gospel, some evangelicals have tended to evade that result by resorting to another kind of half-truth. Thus there are some whose lack of concern for social justice is reflected in an uncritical use of the statement, “You can’t legislate morality.”

Now there is a sense in which it is indeed true that you cannot legislate personal morality. Yet it is also true that the tranquility of society demands legislation for crimes against humanity and the state. Webster defines law as “rules of conduct enforced by a controlling authority.” History provides examples of humanitarian legislation that changed the climate of moral opinion. There was a time when the respectable and religious element of society tolerated child labor. But the legislation pioneered in England by such evangelical humanitarians as the Earl of Shaftesbury stopped this evil, and today child labor is generally recognized as morally indefensible. When Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation and when the Thirteenth Amendment was adopted, there were those who defended slavery as morally permissible. Now, however, not even in areas most deeply committed to segregation would human slavery be defended. Measures designed to protect the individual helped change the climate of moral opinion about an evil that had already been on the conscience of many.

January 31 is World Leprosy Sunday. Compassion for millions of fellow human beings afflicted by this dread disease is not debatable. Christ said, “Cleanse the leper.” There are very few lepers in the United States, and these few are well cared for. Most lepers are on the other side of the globe, eight to ten thousand miles away from this favored land. They must have our generous help. Yet a nearer test of Christian compassion relates to the problems on our doorsteps. To minister to lepers abroad, or to others in Africa, Asia, and the isles of the sea, while essential, will not fulfill our obligation to bind up wounds of the needy in our midst.

Without departing from the zeal for the Gospel which is one of the glories of evangelicalism, we need to recover the realism with which our Lord spoke of discipleship. His teaching bristles with hard sayings. He spoke about seeking first not material prosperity but the Kingdom of God and his righteousness. He called the man who gave priority to things and based his life upon them a fool. He said that whoever would lose his life for His sake would find it and whoever would save his life would lose it. He called believers “the salt of the earth” and expected them to have an ameliorating effect upon the society in which they lived. He said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”

God sent his Son to proclaim the Gospel. Therefore we must proclaim it. God sent him to do works of love and mercy. Therefore we must do works of love and mercy. God sent him to the Cross. Therefore our lives must bear the marks of the Cross. To witness to the saving truth in Christ is the obligation of every believer. But it is not their only obligation. One of Jesus’ most poignant sayings is the question, “Why do you call me ‘Lord, Lord,’ and not do what I tell you?”

Christian compassion is a matter of the heart. Yet it is more than emotion. It is the expression of full commitment of all we have and are to the Lord who gave himself for us. Christian compassion is love in action on behalf of others. To the extent that it is not manifest in the believer’s life, the believer has failed his Lord in not keeping the first and great commandment and the second, which is like unto it.

Failure in compassion betokens an inadequate view of the very heart of Christianity, which is Christ’s self-giving for a lost world. “By this we know love,” said the beloved disciple, “that he laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. But if anyone has this world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him?” John is speaking within the Christian community, but our Lord’s parable of the Good Samaritan warrants the widest application of his words.

When all of evangelicalism learns to match its zeal for the proclamation of the Gospel and its shining record of good works abroad with active compassion for the alleviation of injustice and human deprivation at home, it will move forward in a resurgence of power. Those who proclaim sound doctrine cannot escape the test of reality. Evangelicalism is not exempt from Jesus’ criterion, “By their fruits you shall know them.” Not all fundamentals are doctrinal. If the fundamental of compassion has sometimes been lacking in evangelical life and practice, let it be restored, even though to restore it may be costly.

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