“Praise be to . . . the Father of compassion.”

                 Research into family matters continues to demonstrate that fathers are extremely important in the healthy development of children.  In fact, up to the age of about 22, a father’s demonstration of love, encouragement, compassion and even sympathy can physically and positively affect the development of a child’s frontal lobe in the brain.  This area is the location of emotional development.  Children who come from families with either no father present or poor father images are much more likely to be underdeveloped emotionally than those with healthy father images from an active, loving and engaged father.

Isn’t it interesting that the Scripture describes our Lord as “the Father of compassion”?  I can remember as a child doing some things and then thinking, “Oh no, if Dad finds out about this, he’s going to kill me!”  Of course, at those times I probably deserved every kind of correction and punishment my father would apply, and maybe more.  After all, Hebrews tells us, “… we have had human fathers who corrected us, and we paid them respect … For they indeed for a few days chastened us as seemed best to them…” (12:9-10).  This is how children develop a healthy sense of the fear of the Lord, when the father in their life holds them accountable for their behavior.

But at the same time God is merciful.  In fact, this word “compassion” in our text from 2 Corinthians 1:3 is a more intensified word than the general word for compassion.  It is an intensified mercy, a word that means, “to feel the same as” someone who is either hurting, laughing, feeling sad, lonely, etc.  Romans captures this sense when it says, “Rejoice with those who rejoice, and mourn with those who mourn” (12:15).  We choose to enter into the emotional experience of another and share with them what they are feeling.  This is how the text describes our Heavenly Father.  Imagine the heavy responsibilities of earthly fathers to model this!

Our text goes on to say that God is the “Father” of compassion.  This means that compassion originates from him and no one else.  In fact, the Bible describes our enemy as “the father of lies” (John 8:44)!  This stands in stark contrast to the Father of compassion.  The Devil will go to the extreme to get people to believe anything but the truth.  That is why there are so many false religions and cults in the world.  Think of the sheer number of people who follow anything other than Christianity.  They think they are on the right path, doing what is good and right, expecting that things will work out fine for them in the end.  But when they hit eternity just on the other side of death, they are shocked to find out that they had been deceived.  Not only is the outcome painful because of the punishment they will experience for not having salvation from the Lord, it is also the most bitter experience they can face because they believed the lies of our enemy when they thought they were on the right path.  This eternal bitterness is reflected in the phrase “weeping and gnashing of teeth” (Matthew 22:13, etc.), a Hebraism describing extreme regret and blaming oneself for failure.

But since our Father knows all things, he wanted us to avoid this permanent and woeful situation.  He sent the Spirit of Truth (John 14:17) to reveal himself as the Father of compassion, the only One who understands our desperate heart’s need to be forgiven, and is compassionate toward his sinful children.  In fact, it is based on “the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service” (Romans 12:1).

We have a compassionate Father who loves his children, so much so that he gave up his Son for us.  That is compassion, giving until it hurts and hurts deeply, spending and sacrificing because he understands our need and how helpless we are to meet it.  Jesus told parables about compassion (Matthew 18:21-35, etc.).  He himself was “moved with compassion” (Matthew 9:35, NKJV), following his Father’s example.  His compassion took him all the way to the cross, and that for us.

As your reasonable service today, will you imitate the Father of compassion and have compassion toward others, even when you know they don’t deserve it?