Jesus was often found to take action in response to His inner compassion. “Bowels of compassion…” (King James Version) are not found arising from the knowledge of good and evil. This is a feeling set apart from the usual pity that motivates us to do good works toward those we feel sorry for.
But whoever has the world’s goods, and sees his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? 1John 3:17
When we respond to compassion that springs from the Holy Spirit within us we will find it different from pity in the following ways:
- This compassion is pure, without hypocrisy and partiality
- This compassion is not chore-like, it feels natural; it flows
- This compassion does not drive us to brag about our actions-we easily obey the command to “not let our left hand know what our right hand is doing”
- The fruit of this compassion in the recipient is humility and tenderness toward the Spirit of God
In contrast, when we do nice or good things for others in response to the knowledge of good and evil we will observe the following difference:
- Pity will drive our actions
- We will imagine the praises of men that we hope will give us notice
- We will imagine how we can let others know what we have done
- The fruit of our actions will produce in our recipient contempt toward us and God
We cannot use our knowledge of good and evil to decide what is truly good for someone in need. Theories abound on what is more loving: compassion or tough love. Some use the “What Would Jesus Do?” to guide them. In truth, we can’t know what Jesus would do without the Spirit of God giving us guidance. Many a burned-out Christian can trace their problems back to using their knowledge of good and evil to direct them without ever once asking the Tree of Life, “Lord, what would you have me do?”