February 3, 2022
Thursday
What Does Love Do? Love Cares!
Luke 10:23
Finally, be ye all of one mind, having compassion one of another, love as brethren, be pitiful, be courteous:”
Sometimes one word just won’t do. In New Testament Greek, when the writers wanted to encourage people to act kindly and affectionately toward one another, they wrote “have eusplagchnon”—two words combined into one: eu meant “good” and splagchnonmeant “the internal organs”—heart, liver, bowels. It meant to pull up good feelings and affections from deep within yourself and display those toward others.
When it came to translating eusplagchnon into English, again, one word wasn’t sufficient. We combined com (with) with passion (heartfelt emotion) to create compassion. Compassion is the English version of Greek “good affections from deep within.” Both are good words, strong words, that evoke images of what it means to identify with the pain and needs of others. Com means compassion is with or toward others; compassion is not a solo act or emotion. Compassion has a human object. And passion—well, passion is passion. We know it even when we can’t define it.
Compassion cares. Have compassion for someone in your world today. Pull up from deep within the love that will let them know you care.
A point to ponder…
Compassion makes one person feel pain when another person is hurting.
Unknown
Read the Bible through in a year
I love you!!!
© 2000-2022 B. Michael Goerlich