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God gave Solomon an extra dose of wisdom. He didn’t need a DNA test to tell which of the two ladies was the actual mother of the baby. The motive for the one lady being willing to give the baby to the other woman was love for her baby. This is the same motive that will have a large part to play in our eternal judgement as well.
1 Corinthians 13:1-13
Today everything we do is an act of faith. We can’t see our effect in heaven, but we trust what God has given and told us.
As we put our time and effort into God’s kingdom, this compassion must come from the fleshly heart that God can give us.
Jesus saw that the large crowd was hungry. We are told that Jesus had compassion on them. Jesus had no obligation to these people, rather his heart was touched with compassion when he saw their need.
Ezekiel 36:26
Jesus disciples seemed like they might have been a bit frustrated, Jesus tells them to “feed the people.” Jesus fed the people because he had compassion on them.
Mathew 15:32-38, Luke 9:51-62
The disciples didn’t have the same kind of compassion that Jesus did on Jerusalem. Jesus told them that they needed this heart of compassion. Jesus didn’t come to destroy mans life, but to save them.
Mark 3:1-6
Jesus healed the man with the withered hand in front of everyone. He could have went outside, instead he made a point while he was also healing his hand. Jesus saw the need (the man with the withered hand) on one side, and on the other side he saw people around him that cared nothing for this man who had been suffering.
It is easy for us to become hardened and calloused to the needs around us. What would we have done in this situation? Would we have had a heart of compassion toward him?
Hebrews 3:13 – It is possible for us, even with the operation that we have on our hearts, to become calloused and hardened. We need to exhort each other and encourage each other to compassion.
Luke 10:25-37
There is an element in which we have accountability based on our proximity. The Good Samaritan saw the need of this man who had fallen among the thieves and he had compassion on him. It was immediate, when he saw him.
Jesus told this lawyer to go and do likewise. Where he saw a need he should show compassion and love.
Luke 16:19-31
Lazarus was definitely in need. The ruler of the house didn’t mistreat Lazarus, but he didn’t seem to have any compassion on Lazarus – at least not that we are told about.
What should we get out of this story? Is it not that it is a serious thing for us to not have compassion – the ruler here went to hell. Do we have compassion in our hearts? Have we allowed our hearts to be hardened?
God wants us to have the heart that he has. We need to know what that heart is like so that we can have that kind of a heart. None of us have a desire to go to hell… but it is very true that people can be very religious and not have compassion in our hearts.
Mathew 25:31-46
We could spend a lot of time on this, but we have all of these kinds of needy people among us. Do we have a heart of compassion for each of these? When we see needs do we meet those needs?
Jesus is calling us to cast our bread upon the waters. We must do this with a heart of compassion as stewards of God’s. A faithful steward knows the heart of the owner and follows the desires of that heart.
We are here to be active, agents of God’s doing his work. God is not a hard master… he tells us to take one step and he will reward us 100 times over.