The Mercy and Compassion of God   

"The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth.”—Exodus 34:6 (NASB)

By Danny Saavedra  

What does the word compassion mean to you? According to the dictionary, compassion means “sympathetic pity and concern for the sufferings or misfortunes of others.” The English word compassion comes from the Latin compati, which literally means “to suffer with or to share in suffering.” Some of the words that relate to compassion are pity, sympathy, empathy, care, concern, sensitivity, warmth, love, tenderness, mercy, kindness, humanity, and charity. 

Yesterday we learned about God’s kindness; today we will discuss God’s compassionate nature. It’s been said we are never more like Christ than when we show compassion to others. Why? Because God is a God of generous compassion. We see this repeatedly throughout the Bible. In fact, the word compassion is used to describe the Lord more than 75 times in the Bible, and it is used dozens of other times as a call for us to show it. 

As far back as Genesis 2:18 (NRSV), we see God showing compassion for Adam, saying, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper as his partner.” God had compassion on Adam; He cared. He was sensitive to the fact that Adam was alone. So in His love and kindness, He created woman to be man’s partner and companion in life. 

Then, in Genesis 3, when Adam and Eve sinned, God again showed compassion. He covered their shame and nakedness by providing clothing. 

And we can’t forget about the Parable of the Lost Son. Luke 15:20 (NIV) says, “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him.” The father here, like our Father in heaven, was overcome with compassion. The Greek word used here is splagchnizomai, which means “to feel deep in the gut of your soul, to be moved with intense pity and compassion.”

Famous Christian writer and teacher John MacArthur described the father’s compassion this way: “It was an emotion so deep and so forceful that it would make your stomach churn.” The father in this story was so undone by his love for his son that seeing him shook the foundation of his very being. 

This is exactly what we see from Jesus. All throughout the gospels, we see passages where it says Jesus was moved with compassion for people. He was gripped by it, because He is in every way and in everything, a Lord of grace. 

Other examples of compassion are found in the story of the woman caught in adultery in John 8 or the healings that took place in Matthew 14. The greatest example, of course, is John 3:16. There is no more emphatic evidence of compassion than God sending His only Son to die in our place, to rescue us from our miserable and hopeless state, so He may adopt us as His sons and daughters!

If we want to live a generous life, then we need to be people of compassion. Just like the father in the parable, just like our Father in Heaven, just like our Savior, we must be moved by compassion for others, gripped by it in the pit of our souls. Because Jesus says when we are people who move and operate in compassion, when we embody His compassion to others, it’s as if we’re doing it to Him (Matthew 25:40).