The Tragedy of American Compassion

Tragedy and Compassion – two words that we don’t normally associate together. How could compassion be tragic? While we likely have different levels of bad news in mind when think of tragedy, we are all in agreement that tragedy is bad and something ought to be done. Although I think the TV news industry is working hard to widen the definition to include hangnails.

Compassion is a bit more complicated. We tend to think of compassion from the same perspective that we think of love – the unbiblical, Greco-Roman emotional view. Americans view compassion today differently than we did 250 years ago. We want to “relieve suffering” but don’t stop to think about the proper way of doing this, or even if there is such a thing. There are some issues – life threatening, for example – for which rapid elimination of the threat is proper. But there are many life issues that are the accumulation of bad decisions for which there is no proper quick relief. We can look at G.W. Bush’s policy in the Middle East, thinking the solution there was to quickly implant democratic governments. People will not value the liberty a representative government of laws brings until they realize their need of it. Small children will not realize the value of math if mom tells them the answers rather than teaches and asks diagnostic questions.  Keep Reading >>>

Clarifying What I Mean By the Priority of Proclamation

I see in the comment section that there are some good questions about what exactly it means to make gospel preaching a priority. Again, I encourage you to read the book. There you’ll find almost 300 pages on why we think the mission of the church is disciple making by verbal proclamation.

Recently I preached a sermon on this topic and finished with three points of application. They seem germane to this discussion.

First, if we as individuals and churches are becoming more like Christ, there should grow in us a spirit of deep compassion for the needs of hurting people. If we are like Jesus, we’ll see the sadness and confusion and suffering in the world and something in us will cry out, “I want to do something about this. I want to make this better. I am sorry for this pain.” We won’t be able to do everything, but we can do something, especially for those closest to us. Our first obligation is to our family (1 Timothy 5:8). After that, Galatians 6:10 says, “As we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” So our church is the next obligation. But beyond that there is still a command to do good to all as we have opportunity.

What we see from the ministry of Jesus is that he had a heart to capitalize on those opportunities. We must be praying, studying, and growing so that we will have our eyes open to see opportunities for compassion. Jesus cared about all suffering. Jesus cared about bodies and souls. He ministered to bodies as well as souls. So will we if we are his followers.    Keep Reading...

Biblical Pillars for Mercy Ministry

Yesterday John Piper gave a challenge to his readers to try to support their understanding of showing love to the unbelieving poor with “strong pillars” of theological argument. People are lost and on their way to hell, and many of them are suffering in this life as well. It has always struck me as particularly meaningless and eternally inconsequential when churches use their resources to do that which God has not called us to do. The poor, as Piper said, deserve better than bad arguments with bad theological foundations.

Last week I made the case that the Bible does not command churches to use their resources to lower the poverty rate, and I quibbled with Tim Keller’s statement that Christians owe the poor as much as we can possibly give them. But Keller’s views on mercy ministry are really so extreme, that it is easy to be accused of arguing with a straw man (plus I want to take this to heart) so I want to spend a few posts explaining what I see is a full biblical view of mercy ministry.

So over the next few weeks/months, I will use this blog to explain how our response to the poor should be influenced by Scripture (only one post a week, so no need to tune out till November if this doesn’t interest you). If you have sat on a mission’s committee and been frustrated by the social agenda of many missionaries, if you have seen the homeless man on the side of the road with the sign that says “will work for beer” and wondered what you should do, if have ever dared to ask the question: “does the Bible command Christians to work for social justice issues?” then this series of posts will be helpful to you.   Keep Reading...

Why we Still need to Learn from Francis Schaeffer