Compassion Created by MB Raper 12/08

Definitions  Merriam Webster Definition of Compassion: Noun; to bear or suffer sympathetic consciousness of others’; distress together with a desire to alleviate it.  Merriam Webster Thesaurus Definition of Compassion: sorrow or the capacity to feel sorrow for another’s suffering or misfortune; capacity for feeling another’s unhappiness or misfortune.

 ANTONYMS  Cruelty  Harshness  Hatred  Indifference  Meanness  Mercilessness

LACK OF COMPASSION  Unmerciful Servant  Matthew 18:23-35  Servant owed large debt he could not pay  Master could sell servant, his family, his belongings  Servant begged for mercy  Master had compassion and forgave entire debt  Second servant owed small debt to first servant  Debt could not be paid  First servant had his servant thrown into prison  Master angry and executed punishment for the first servant

 32 Then the master called his servant in, “You wicked servant,” he said, “I canceled all the debt of yours because you begged me to.  33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?”  34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.  35 This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you show compassion to your brother from your heart. unless you show compassion to your brother from your heart.

LACK OF COMPASSION BRINGS CONSEQUENCES  Proverbs 21:13  “Whoever closes his ear to the cry of the poor will himself cry out and not be answered.”  Proverbs 24:  “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls, and do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles, lest the LORD see it and be displeased, and turn away His anger from him.

SYNONYMS  Benevolence  Charity  Clemency  Commiseration  Compunction  Condolence  Consideration  Empathy  GRACE  Heart  KINDNESS  MERCY  Sorrow  Sympathy  Tenderness

COMPASSION EXPRESSED  The Parable of the Prodigal Son  Luke 15:12-32  Youngest son rejects family, demands inheritance, leaves home  Made “fair-weathered” friends, “lives it up”  Spent fortune, is alone, homeless, hungry  Decides to go home and ask to be a servant  Father always watching for his son’s return  Sees him a long way off, runs to meet him  Had a “Welcome Home Party”

 28 But the older brother became angry and refused to go in (to the party). So his father went out and pleaded with him.  29 But he answered his father, “Look! All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends.  30 But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fatted calf for him!  31 “My son,” the father said, “you are always with me, and everything I have is yours.  32 But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”

BENEFITS OF COMPASSION  Proverbs 11:17 “A man who is kind benefits himself, but a cruel man hurts himself.”  Proverbs 14:31 “Whoever oppresses a poor man insults his Maker, but he who is generous to the needy honors Him.”

Remember the “Golden Rule.”  Luke 6:31 Do to others as you would have them do to you.”

GRACE G=God’s R=Riches A=At C=Christ’s E=Expense

 “Teach us dear God, to have compassion enough to realize that all men are created in Your image.” Marian Anderson