Arms of Love

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Compassion, Justice, and Mercy

Sermon by Robert J. Benson (June 2002)

Arms of Love Introduction

About two years ago, I started a Christian ministry called Arms of Love International. The focus of our ministry is establishing Christian children’s homes in developing countries to care for orphaned, abandoned, and abused children. In these countries, there are no government-sponsored facilities that care for these kinds of children. Unless someone takes them in, these children wind up homeless, living on the streets, seeking to survive through any means possible - most typically through begging, theft, and prostitution.

Through Arms of Love we are establishing homes for these children. In each home, a local Christian couple cares for a group of up to 10 children with the assistance of other staff. Each child we receive has been permanently separated from his parents and is either living on the streets full-time or is at imminent risk of living on the streets if we don’t take him in. Right now we have legal custody of more than 50 such children, who are living in our homes in Nicaragua, the Philippines.

One of the most important parts of our vision is to connect each project to local churches and church planting in the host country. We view each project as an outreach of local churches to homeless children in their own community. And so Arms of Love is a mechanism for partnering individuals and churches here in the United States with churches in the Third World to help them care for orphans in their respective countries.

The Big Picture

I think a fair question to start with is why are we doing this? Let’s start with the big picture.

In Isaiah, God says that He created us for His glory. [Isaiah 43:7.]
In John 17, Jesus speaks of how His fundamental purpose was to bring glory to God the Father by completing the work He was given to do.
Paul opens his epistle to the Ephesians by affirming that God’s purpose in saving us is to bring glory to His name.
I Cor. 10:31 tells us that in everything we do, “do it all for the glory of God.”
I Peter 4:11 instructs us to serve “with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be glorified.”
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus tells us to let our light shine before men, “that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
The Old Testament speaks of God’s intent to fill the earth with the knowledge of His glory. [Habakkuk 2:14.]
And in Revelation, we read that all of history is moving toward a day when God’s creation will be restored to its original glory, a day when people from “every nation, tribe, people and language” will stand before His throne, worshiping Him, praising Him, and giving Him glory.

Do you detect a theme here? God’s overriding purpose in history, from beginning to end, is the furtherance of His glory. The final outcome of history is the restoration of God’s creation and the worship of God among all the peoples of the earth. And we are living in a time when the kingdom of God is already present among us - not yet fully manifested, but already present - and the kingdom of God is advancing God’s glory among the nations, moving history to its final dramatic conclusion. That is where we are, and that is what God has called us to be a part of: the advancement of His kingdom, among the nations, for His glory.

So how do we participate in the advancement of God’s kingdom? Jesus established the kingdom of God among us and He commenced its advancement, so we can find our answer by taking a look at Jesus’ ministry. When the disciples of John the Baptist asked Jesus whether He was the Messiah, Jesus answered, “Go and report to John what you have seen and heard …” So there was something that was demonstrated, which they saw, and something that they heard, that was preached. “…the blind receive sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have the gospel preached to them.”

The gospels show us that Jesus’ ministry had two principal components: the proclamation of the gospel - that which was heard - and the demonstration of the gospel, that which was seen. Jesus brought the word of God, and He illustrated it through the works of God. Jesus taught it, then He did it. Jesus taught about the mercy of God while bringing God’s mercy to bear on the circumstances of life. Jesus taught about the love of God while demonstrating God’s love to the poor, to the sick, to the outcasts.

Jesus demonstrated the gospel in two ways, or along two planes. He demonstrated the gospel on a supernatural level, through healing, prophecy, and casting out demons; but also on a natural level, such as feeding the hungry, showing mercy and love to people who were social outcasts, ministering to the poor. Moreover, Jesus’ supernatural miracles were often directed toward those who were the most in need, the most rejected, the most desperate. Taken together, Jesus’ works offered proof of the present coming of the kingdom of God by demonstrating both the power of
God and the heart of God.

For us to continue the advancement of His kingdom, we must do as Jesus did. We must tell others of God’s love for them and then we must demonstrate that love by caring for their needs: feeding the hungry, giving shelter to the homeless, caring for the orphaned. James writes, “If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,’ and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that? Faith, if it has no works, is dead.” James 2:15-17.

John Wimber once told a story about a taxicab ride in New York City. At the beginning of the trip, they were almost hit by a bus that had a sign on the side advertising a church. That prompted the cab driver to begin talking about churches, and he proceeded to share with John every horror story imaginable about churches. People stealing money, pastors having sexual affairs, you name it. But John kept looking for an opening to witness to this driver. Finally, at the end of the cab ride, John asked the driver this question: if there was a God, and if He had a church, what would it look like? The taxi driver thought about it for a while, and then he said, “If there was a God, and if He had a church, it would care for the poor, it would feed the hungry, and they wouldn’t charge you money to teach you the book.”

They know what true religion looks like. “True religion is this: to help widows and orphans in their distress.” James 1:27. We must be teachers of the Word, but we must also be doers of the Word. No matter how much we preach the gospel, if our lives do not reflect the deeds of Jesus, people will not recognize Jesus in us and they will look elsewhere in search of truth. There are three attributes of God I would like to focus on this morning that are fundamental to understanding the kingdom of God and how we participate in its advancement: compassion, justice, and mercy.

Compassion

Compassion was fundamental to the ministry of Jesus Christ.

Matt. 9:36-37: “Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Compassion was the motivating factor behind missions and evangelism.
Matt. 14:14: “When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them and healed their sick.” Compassion was the motivating factor behind Jesus’ healing ministry.
Matt. 15:32: Jesus said to his disciples, “I feel compassion for the people, because they have remained with me now three days and have nothing to eat, and I do not want to send them away hungry.” And so with seven loaves and a few fish, Jesus fed the four thousand. Compassion was the motivating factor behind Jesus feeding the hungry.

And so the compassionate heart of God was the motivating factor for each aspect of Jesus’ ministry: preaching the Word, healing the sick, caring for people in need. And so the compassion of God is foundational to the kingdom of God.

What is compassion? Compassion is not merely thinking, “I have an obligation to help that person.” Compassion is a deep feeling that is aroused when we see someone crying, hungry, sick, or hurting, and it stirs us to act on that person’s behalf. The distinction is critical. Compassion will motivate us to action in situations our minds would tell us to avoid: like the time a hardened street youth hurled a knife at me as I passed by. Compassion will cause us to persevere when our minds would tell us to give up: when an alcoholic or a drug addict keeps going back for another drink or another high. Compassion will move us to help someone even when our own finances will be adversely affected: when we pay rent for someone who has just lost her job, not knowing how we will then be able to pay our own rent. God is not looking for thinking that is of this world—He wants our hearts to reflect His heart. And that’s the importance of compassion.

Recall the parable of the Good Samaritan. The priest and the Levite passed by the beaten man laying at the side of the road, even though we would have expected such religious men to offer help. Instead, a Samaritan man helped him. What was the difference? Jesus tells us in Luke 10:33: “A Samaritan while travelling came near him; and when he saw him, he was moved with compassion.” All three men had various reasons not to stop and help the man, the Samaritan most of all. But because his heart was moved with compassion, the Samaritan crossed over racial, ethnic, and religious barriers, and gave the wounded man the care he needed. Because of his compassion, Jesus held up the Samaritan man – not the religious men – as the example for us to follow.

Sometimes we see so many needs around us, so much desperation in this world, that we become overwhelmed and desensitized, and our hearts become callused. Whenever our hearts stop breaking when we see someone in need, we need to take our hearts before God and ask Him to break our hearts afresh and fill our hearts with His compassion. This is the starting point for carrying out Jesus’ ministry. Kingdom ministry requires a broken heart.

Justice

Justice is another fundamental attribute of God. “Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.” Psalm 97:2. But while compassion is an emotion, justice is an action. Micah 6:8: “What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Compassion motivates the work of the kingdom, and justice is the work that is accomplished in the kingdom.

Justice within the kingdom of God can be viewed as having a vertical dimension – our relationship with God – and a horizontal dimension, our relationships with others. In the vertical dimension, we are justified by faith. God delivers a divine verdict and pronounces us righteous on account of our faith in Christ. God’s righteousness then possesses us and is extended along the horizontal dimension. Having been made righteous before God, we must perform acts of righteousness toward others. Our King has guaranteed justice for us in His kingdom; and as members of His kingdom, He demands that we act justly toward others. Divine justice requires social justice, an important part of which is helping those in need. It is, in fact, an ethical extension of the law; as one of our church fathers, the teacher of Augustine, wrote, “Feed the hungry; if you have not fed him, you have killed him.”

Jesus issued a mandate for justice. History is moving toward a day when the Judge of all will pronounce His final verdict concerning humanity. The wicked will receive their punishment, and the believers who have been made right with God by faith will receive eternal life. And the Judge will turn to those on His right and say, “Come, you who are blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry, and you gave Me something to eat; I was thirsty, and you gave Me something to drink; I was a stranger, and you invited Me in; naked, and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison, and you came to Me.” And the righteous will say, “When? When did we do any of that?” And He will answer them, “to the extent that you did it to one of the least of these, you did it to Me.” According to this narrative in Matthew 25, when the Judge pronounces His eternal verdict concerning each one of us, He will look at the evidence – and the evidence that we have been justified by faith, the evidence that we have been made right before God, the evidence that we are the beneficiaries of God’s divine justice, is that we are actively involved in bringing God’s justice into the lives of others, by delivering the oppressed, caring for the orphans, feeding the hungry.

Three principles summarize how we go about accomplishing this:

What we receive, we give
As much as we receive, we give
As we receive, we give

First: what we receive, we give. It isn’t just about money. It’s also about our time, our energy, our caring. It might mean helping someone finish repairing his house. It might mean giving transportation to someone who lacks a car. It might mean visiting someone in jail or in the hospital. It might mean going to the store for someone who is unable to go to the store herself. We must give out of any and every resource God gives to us: whether money, gifts, time or talents.

Second: as much as we receive, we give. Quantity is not the issue. Remember the story of the widow’s mite? Jesus said, “this poor widow put in more than all the [other] contributors to the treasury; for they all put in out of their surplus, but she, out of her poverty, put in all she owned, all she had to live on.” Jesus held out the widow’s gift as the example for us to follow. Not because it was a large gift quantitatively, but because it was given out of her need. In doing so, Jesus offered the most famous illustration in history of what James writes in chapter 2, verse 5: “God chose the poor of this world to be rich in faith.”

But what I find most interesting about the story of the widow is that she gave not one mite, but two. If she had one mite, she would have had two alternatives: to give everything, or to give nothing. But she had two mites, and this offered her a third option: she could have given one, and kept the other for her own provision. She still would have been giving out of her need, it still would have been a great sacrifice for her. Certainly it would have been reasonable for her to keep one mite for her own provision. But she gave all that she had.

What the story of the widow shows us is that we are not to calculate what we think we need for our own provision and then give God what is left. We must surrender everything to God, and then follow His direction in what to do with it. To the extent God allows us certain amounts for our own provision, that’s fine, but sometimes God will call us to give even that which we believe we need for our own provision, because He wants us to find our security in Him and trust Him for our daily provision.

This leads to the third principle, that as we receive, we give. In Luke 12, Jesus tells us about a man who had a big harvest – in modern parlance, he made a bundle on his stock options – so he said, “I will tear down my barns and build bigger ones [i.e., expand my portfolio and open some new investment accounts], and there I will store all my grain and my goods. And I’ll say to myself, ‘You have plenty of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry.’” He secured his wealth so he could retire early and enjoy life. Isn’t that supposed to be everyone’s dream? Isn’t this man the model of forward thinking, practical wisdom, and good financial planning? God’s response might sound a little less familiar: “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you. Then who will get what you have prepared for yourself?” Jesus concludes with the words, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God.”

Jesus followed this parable by telling us not to worry about tomorrow, what we will eat, or what we will wear, because just as God provides for the birds of the air and the flowers of the field, He will certainly provide for our needs. And so Jesus taught us to pray, “Give us today our daily bread.” God promises that each day He will provide for our needs out of His abundance – and some of the time, He blesses us far beyond what we need. If we really trust God for His provision, and if we believe His promises, should we not use what we have today to meet the needs that we encounter today and trust Him with tomorrow?

What we receive, we give. As much as we receive, we give. As we receive, we give. It is the inhaling and exhaling of the Christian life.

When we follow these three principles, we enter into the economy of the kingdom of God: whether we start out rich or poor, we will end up poor of our own resources, but rich toward God. No matter how much we start out with, when we minister to the poor there will inevitably come points in time when we run out of our own money, our own energy, our own heart, our own theories of ministry. But then that’s when we discover that His grace and His resources are sufficient for us. It is when we lose that which we thought was necessary, that we find Him who is everything. When we give to the point of real sacrifice, it forces us to live in the cross. Modern wisdom tells us, “You need to provide for yourself, accumulate as much as you can, preserve your own life.” But Jesus said, “Whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; and whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.” Matt. 16:25.

This brings us to a third important attribute of God:

Mercy

Mercy determines the manner in which justice is carried out. God’s justice flows out of, and is constrained by, His mercy. Mercy is demonstrated when we do something, on someone’s behalf, even though they have not earned it or deserve it. Mercy and compassion are actually part of a singular concept in Scripture, because God’s heart breaks whenever He sees someone in need, regardless of whether they are at fault for their situation. Because of His mercy, God’s compassion extends to everyone. And because of God’s undeserved compassion and mercy toward us, we should also feel compassion toward every person in need, regardless of their level of fault for their situation.

So often, our conduct is governed by our judgments of others. Some Christians will help a homeless person who is crippled but not someone who appears physically able to get a job. Some Christians will help children who suffer from AIDS but refuse to help homosexuals who have AIDS because of their immoral sexual activity. Some Christians will help a widow with children, but they will refuse to help a single mother who had children outside of marriage.

But is this showing God’s mercy? What if God had this attitude toward us? What if God looked at us and said, “he is at fault for the situation that he is in, therefore, I will not help him or deliver him.” Where would we be? God Himself died for us and delivered us when we were completely at fault for our situation. Likewise, we must help others irrespective of whether their need is a result of their own actions, mistakes, or sin. Failure to do so is a failure to show God’s mercy.

Look at the parable of the king in Matthew 18:23-35. Jesus describes the kingdom of God as being like a king who ordered a slave and his family to be sold in order to repay a debt. But the slave begged for mercy, and in verse 27, Jesus says that “the lord of that slave felt compassion and released him and forgave him the debt.” The king was moved by compassion to show incredible mercy. But then the slave went out and threw one of his fellow slaves in jail for failing to repay a much smaller amount. The king calls the slave back and says in verse 33, “should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?” And the king hands the slave over to torturers until all of the debt is repaid. Then Jesus finishes the story by saying that our heavenly Father will do the same to us if – having received His forgiveness and mercy – we do not forgive our brothers and show mercy on them. James 2:13: “Judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy.”

Compassion requires compassion. Justice demands justice. Mercy requires mercy.

These are not low priorities – they are at the very center of God’s purpose in human history. When we enter into the kingdom of God, as we worship Him and as we study His Word, we become intimate with him and we experience His compassion, justice, and mercy in our lives. As we experience God, it kindles our passion for His glory. Our passion for His glory then ignites and fuels our desire to see His glory go forth to the nations, which is accomplished by the proclamation and demonstration of the gospel – the proclamation and demonstration of God’s compassion, mercy and justice – as we have been discussing this morning.

Our passion for Christ and the compassion of Christ are inseparable. Showing compassion without a passion for His glory is nothing more than a man-centered enterprise of improving the human condition in a way that has no eternal significance. A passion for His glory without compassion simply reveals that we have had no real experience of God in our lives, and by professing to know Him we are being hypocrites.

Our church services can be wonderful things. Dynamic preaching from the Word, people growing intimate with God through worship, the gifts of the Spirit being poured out. But this is not the end; it is only the beginning. If you were a little girl in Thailand sold by her family into prostitution, or if you were a child living on the streets of Nicaragua, or if you were a single mother here in San Jose struggling to make ends meet, and you heard that there were some great church services being held at the Vineyard, would you be impressed? What would that mean to you? It has to reach them, the demonstration of the gospel has to reach them, and it only reaches them if we go.

Jesus’ last words to us were to “Go, and make disciples of all nations.” Go, and bring the good news of the gospel to the poor! Go, and show my compassion to the lost! Go, and execute justice on behalf of the oppressed! Go, and show my mercy to those who have been thrown away! Go, and feed the hungry in my name! Go, and bring my glory to the nations!

Where are you this morning? Has your heart has become calloused, and no longer breaks when you see someone in need? Has God’s mercy fully penetrated your own heart, or are there people in your life to whom you are showing no mercy? Are you doing all that you can to respond to God’s call to bring His compassion, justice, and mercy to the nations?

I believe one of the most instructive stories in Scripture concerning compassion ministry is the story of how Jesus fed the four thousand. Mark 8:1-9:

“During those days another large crowd gathered. Since they had nothing to eat, Jesus called his disciples to Him and said, ‘I have compassion for these people; they have already been with me three days and have nothing to eat. If I send them home hungry, they will collapse on the way, because some of them have come a long distance.’ His disciples answered, ‘But where in this remote place can anyone get enough bread to feed them?’”

Now Jesus could have handled this situation in a variety of ways. He could have anticipated the situation by sending a contingent of people to a nearby town the day before to purchase food. He could have spoken the word, and enough food for the multitude would have appeared. But Jesus did neither. Instead, Jesus asked his disciples:

“‘How many loaves do you have?’ … ‘Seven,’ they replied. He told the crowd to sit down on the ground. When he had taken the seven loaves and given thanks, he broke them and gave them to his disciples to set before the people, and they did so. They had a few small fish as well; he gave thanks for them also and told the disciples to distribute them. The people ate and were satisfied. Afterward the disciples picked up seven basketfuls of broken pieces that were left over. About four thousand men were present.”

Today we are in a position similar to that of Jesus’ disciples. We look at the hundreds of millions of people in the world who are hungry, dying of disease, and lacking the basic needs of life, and then we look at our own resources, and we think it’s a hopeless task, one we can do nothing about. We surmise that it is a problem for the governments of the world, the United Nations, the World Bank, the IMF – in other words, someone other than ourselves. But Jesus is looking at us today the same as he did his disciples two thousand years ago, and He is asking us, “What do you have?” He is calling us to go forth among the multitudes with whatever we have, no matter how little or how much, and set to the task of caring for them. And when we do, He will find ways to bless it, and to multiply it.

When I started the ministry of Arms of Love, it began with just one person, one project, one contribution, a few loaves, and a few fish. I did not have any relevant training or education. I was a lawyer, which has to be one of the most useless jobs on the planet when it comes to ministry. I did not have an abundance of time. I had a demanding full time job – and I still do. I also have a family with four young children. I did not have an abundance of money – we had some surplus, but we weren’t wealthy. I simply offered God what I had, and He multiplied it. That’s the way it is when we minister with the poor. We all have something that we can give, of our time, our money, our talents and other resources – and when we step out in faith and give what we can, God loves to bless it and multiply it.