Compassion Is in Our Mission
This past weekend we spent time on our City Service project, which we do every 5th Sunday of a month. This past month we collected household and winter items for the Afghan refugees that are coming into our city to help them with the transition and hopefully be able to establish themselves here. We want to help them in their immediate physical needs, but we also want to meet them in their spiritual needs and point them to Jesus.
In our LifeGroups this week we looked at James 2:14-18 and discussed what that looks like in our context.
14 What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? 15 Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. 16 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? 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. 18 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.
What James is challenging us with is putting our heart, mind, and resources into serving others. “James explores the nature of saving faith. There is a “faith” that cannot save. Such faith has kind words but no deeds, no aid for the naked and hungry. It is “dead” because it rests in ideas, not in a life dependent upon and reflective of Jesus (vv. 14–17). Orthodox theology “apart from works is useless” (v. 20). Demons prove this, since they hold to orthodox ideas about God yet live in terror since they don’t trust him (v. 19).” [GTB]
That points us back to the Great Commandment of loving God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength (or body), and loving your neighbor as yourself. This type of love for God is us putting all ourselves and our resources into love and service, which is then turned to our neighbor who is created in God’s image, who like us is in need of love and compassion. God describes Himself as being compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, overflowing with loyal love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6), and that is embodied in the person and work of Jesus Christ who was “moved by compassion to enter into humanity’s suffering, into death itself, to rescue and bring us near to God.” [BP]
This is the life of compassion that we want to imitate as a church, which is why our mission statement is “Serving like Jesus, helping people discover their role in God’s story.” This looks like being aware of and being moved by the pain of others and working to relieve suffering in the world, while pointing the world to the One who has overcome the world (John 16:33). “In this way, we too can embody the compassion of Yahweh, or in Jesus’ words, ‘be compassionate, just as your Father is compassionate’ (Luke 6:36, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4, Ephesians 4:32).” [BP]