Compassion

“And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” (Jude 22-23)

Last Sunday afternoon a vicious tornado leveled about half of the city of Joplin, Mo. Unless you have been under a rock for the last few days, you are well aware of all of this and have seen many of the images coming from Joplin. Most everyone in our neck of the woods has some connection to the tragedy since Joplin is only 3 hours from Kansas City. Our office manager Teresa Dailey grew up in Joplin and still has family there. All of them are safe, having missed the storm by a few blocks, but they are obviously affected. My wife works for Jo-Ann’s Stores, and the Joplin store was right in the middle of the tornado and completely destroyed. Fortunately all of their employees made it out alive, but right now they do not have a job. Hundreds are still missing. Anyone who survived the storm will have a gruesome nightmare experience to relive for the rest of their lives every time it starts to rain. Help and relief efforts are well underway, but it will obviously be a long time before normalcy is restored.

I heard from one of our former church members who now lives in Joplin. Their family is OK, but they have friends who are still missing. She said the President is scheduled to visit Joplin in the next couple of days, and that Fred Phelps and his gang of lunatics are planning to come at the same time to picket his visit. What is it about these raving nut jobs? Anyone who would seize on the suffering of others to promote their own personal fame and agenda is sick. I cannot imagine a more twisted and perverse form of “Christianity” than to descend upon a group of people at such a time and rejoice in their misfortune and blame them for the tragedy. I know that God does not operate like that. He is kind and gracious and longsuffering with man, and the very fact that Phelps and his wacko family are still around is proof. God is compassionate even to them in spite of the venom and filth they spew.

As we step back from this for a minute and consider the verses in Jude above, we can get a lesson on how to deal with the message we carry of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It says that some are saved with fear. The coming judgment of God against sin needs to be proclaimed. The sirens went off in Joplin about 20 minutes before the storm hit. Ample warning was given that a very dangerous situation was unfolding. No one could predict or imagine the exact details, but people knew that a nasty storm was imminent. Imagine the outrage if the weather service had ignored the situation and did not warn people. What if they had taken the approach so many Christians do with the gospel, and said, “We don’t want to offend anyone.” Or, “If I just let my light shine, then people will know a tornado is coming.” Fear of hell is a motivation for people to trust the Lord Jesus Christ as their Saviour. They must be warned, but with compassion and grace. It is not compassionate to gloss over the reality of the impending judgment of God against sin. But it is even less compassionate to gloat over the tragedy that sin produces in people’s lives. Bad things befall people because we live in an evil and fallen world, and quite often it is the direct fault of the individual. Not so with the tornado in Joplin, but God uses difficulties in the lives of the lost to get them to turn to the Saviour. It is at those times when true compassion must be manifest in the hearts of his people.

We see a massive outpouring of assistance and compassion from around the area for the people of Joplin. We are seeing it from the lost. Most of the people coming to the aid of Joplin probably do not know Jesus as their Saviour. They are just moved with genuine compassion for the plight of the suffering. As Christians, we know an even greater tragedy is on the horizon for those without Christ. Losing your home and possessions is bad enough. Losing an eternal soul is far worse. Sound the alarm, and respond with grace to those who need Jesus.