An Evangelist’s Heart: Compassion

During a qualifying heat for the 5,000-meter race at the 2016 Olympic Games, New Zealand runner Nikki Hamblin fell, accidentally tripping American runner Abbey D’Agostino. The two women took turns helping each other to stand and then finish the race. Though neither medaled, they were given the only Fair Play awards of the Games. Hamblin explained the women’s compassionate acts: “Once you are on the track, there is a mutual understanding of what it takes to get there.”

In today’s passage we see that an evangelist’s heart is filled with compassion for people who are in the same lost and fallen condition we once were. Elsewhere, we learn that the apostle Paul had lived an exemplary life as a religious Jew (see Phil. 3:4–6). He knew what it meant to live according to a strict interpretation of the Law. He had taken pride in his identity as a zealous Jewish religious leader.

After Paul met Christ, he longed for his fellow Jews to meet Him too. In Romans 9, he uses the strongest terms possible—“great sorrow and unceasing anguish” (v. 2)—to describe his concern for Jews living apart from Christ. He even says he would be willing to give up his own salvation if only they could be saved instead (v. 3). Paul’s words reflect the heart of Jesus Himself, who had compassion on the crowds because they didn’t have anyone to teach them the good news (see Mark 6:34).

As evangelists, we are compelled by the two great commandments to love God and to love our neighbors (Luke 10:27). Because we love God, we long for others to praise and worship Him. Because we love our neighbors, we desire for them to accept the privileged life of adoption to sonship.

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John Jelinek, interim provost and dean of Moody Theological Seminary, is grateful for your prayers for the ministry of Christian education at Moody. He invites you to join him in thanksgiving for God’s faithfulness guiding and protecting this ministry through the years.

BY Megan Hill

Megan Hill serves on the editorial board for Christianity Today and is a regular contributor to CT Women and The Gospel Coalition website. She is the author of Praying Together: The Priority and Privilege of Prayer: In Our Homes, Communities, and Churches, and a graduate of Grove City College. She lives in West Springfield, Mass., with her husband and four children.