Unrestrained Compassion

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

If I were to ask you, using one or two words, to describe the character and life of Jesus, you might say “love” or “loving.” That’s a normal and accurate understanding of who Jesus is, based on Scriptural evidence.

However, because of the way the word love has been so severely weakened and watered down in today’s world, in which it often simply means to fully accept without reservation, are we being biblically accurate in using just that word without additional descriptivism? The word love is so up for grabs today, often meaning whatever the hearer/speaker wants it to mean.

I submit that for us today, it is far better to describe Jesus in other ways that underscore His love for humanity and especially for those who are, what Paul calls, in the beloved, or saved. In fact, I’m going to go out on a bit of a limb to suggest that the very character, the very heart of Jesus toward sinners is one of unrestrained compassion. He could not not reach out to people.

Fully accepting a person today without any form of critique is seen as being fully loving and that also normally means that we do not deign to suggest they might have a need; a need for Jesus and the salvation that He offers. The one prerequisite is that they realize their need for Him based on the understanding that they cannot save themselves. They don’t need to get rid of things first, but they do need to do so eventually. They need to understand that they must be willing to admit that they are in desperate need. Unfortunately, too many today believe the opposite about themselves and the world (including a growing list of pastors and churches), has made that line of thinking possible.

To suggest that people need salvation means they are not complete, correct? They are missing something that they need to grab hold of to become complete. Loving people, as far as many to most are concerned today, means don’t make waves. Embrace them for who and what they tell us they are. Loving people in today’s vernacular means essentially receiving them with niceties and platitudes and letting God take care of the rest. It’s a bit like being happy for someone as we watch them walk toward hell.

The problem with today’s version of love, aside from the fact that it is not scriptural, is that it allows the “love” we seem to extend, to ultimately come back to us. That almost seems to be the goal as it becomes a mutual appreciation society thing. We are seen as magnanimous and non-judgmental. We are seen as someone who so deeply cares about others that we would never insinuate that they need the very change in their life that Jesus Himself says we need and offers.

In today’s polarized climate, we are never to suggest to someone that they are coming up short in their belief system. This is often seen as right-wing extremism or narrow-mindedness; even judgmentalism. Loving people in today’s world means standing back and urging them onward at whatever it is they’re doing, somehow believing that God will quietly get them where they are supposed to be, but not necessarily helping their understanding unmask the reality of their situation. However, the meaning and action of unrestrained compassion, in my view is far, far different and I think gets us much closer to the biblical understanding of what actually constitutes godly love.

The type of unrestrained compassion I’m referring to is the type of compassion I believe Jesus felt, experienced and evidenced constantly in the Gospels. It was the motivating factor in all He did.

Jesus so fully received and reached out to anyone who came to Him that He was unconstrained in His efforts and ability to help another person, except for the restraints placed on Him by the other person. Yet, He did not take any rejection of Him personally and normally kept doing what He could to help them see the truth of the Gospel. Jesus could not help but reach out to them.

Whether He fed thousands, healed sick people, raised the dead or whatever, it was all done from the starting point of unrestrained compassion. He could do nothing else. His full blown compassion compelled Him to reach out and do what He could to help others regardless of any fallout directed His way. That didn’t matter to Him. He pressed on.

Jesus spent roughly three years of public ministry helping people because of His unrestrained compassion for them, thereby showing how much He loved them. His unrestrained compassion within Him yearned to reach other people with the truth. He yearned, from His bowels as it were, to see people made whole. He was not at all content to simply go around “accepting people” as is often preached today, without helping them understand that they actually needed something they did not have that would change the direction of their life.

When rejected by the religious leaders, He didn’t hate them. Yes, He grew angry with their recalcitrant nature and legalism, which kept them and others from entering into the Kingdom, but He still wanted them to respond positively to the truth of the Word (Himself). He also clearly understood that by continual rejection of Him, they confirmed their own path toward hell. How His heart must have been breaking at their rebellion. Jesus knew that there would be a time when those who continually and resolutely rejected Him would face His wrath. He wanted them to avoid that.

Many to most of us (myself included), often fail at truly and actually helping people because we often do it in our own strength. We want to reach out to others, but we also innately know that it requires effort. We are told throughout Scripture that we must reach out because this is what believers should do. This can become tiring for us before we even get started because we are using our own effort. What we need is a complete change of heart attitude brought about by a complete change of understanding or a catalyst that compels us from our own bowels to reach out to others. Too often, we put on the attitude without having the actual catalyst from which it would naturally flow. It’s from our heads, not our hearts.

We essentially need to allow God to highly develop within us the same character trait that existed/exists in His Son when He walked this earth (and continues to exist now); unrestrained compassion that compels us to reach out to others regardless of the cost to ourselves. This is the actual work of being a Christian and it is the work that will occur throughout the remainder of our lives; gaining more unrestrained compassion. Some folks have more of an innate natural ability to express compassion toward others. Some of us much less. But all need to grow it.

Please understand that I do not live like this now as much as I would like. I fully believe God will often enlighten our hearts and minds through His Word first and then, as we begin to grab hold of this new understanding and pray for it to occur in our life, we will see it begin to take shape. This then will grow into a dramatic impulse within us to “lose ourselves” where this growing unrestrained compassion causes us to reach out to others in need. We do so without counting the cost to ourselves. This is the process by which we lose ourselves in Jesus. In other words, I believe God provides enlightenment to those who seek it in this (and all other areas in which Jesus wants us to grow), and then after gaining an intellectual understanding of it, we begin to pray that it becomes reality in our life. It may happen gradually or much more instantly. That part is up to God.

Imagine if you had something so strong welling up inside you that you had to do whatever you could to reach out to others, even meeting their needs in the process so that they see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven. Imagine that. We all know that if that occurred, we would be carried along by our compassion toward others. It would seem like little to no effort at all, because of the catalyst of unrestrained compassion within us.

As it is, much of the time, I actually have to think about helping someone or I find myself debating/arguing with myself over how or why to help someone. This was not how Jesus’ life was defined. He did what He did because He literally lived to help others, whether in preaching the Word, feeding the hungry, healing the sick or raising the dead. Yes, those miracles also gave testimony about who He was/is, but He was so compelled to help and reach out to others that He didn’t care if He got a full night’s sleep or if He was in the middle of praying or some other activity. His unrestrained compassion guided Him and He instantly knew what was the more important for that moment.

In seeing how Jesus worked in the Gospels, He simply went around from place to place, preached here and there and helped as many people as He could, who wanted His help. There were times when no one or few wanted His help, as in Matthew 13:52-58.

58 And He did not do many miracles there, because of their unbelief.

This has nothing to do with the fact that Jesus did not want to help the people and everything to do with the fact that the people, by and large, had taken offense at Him, closing themselves off from Him. His heart was compelled to reach out to them. He wanted to heal them and help them understand the truth of God’s Word. He wanted them whole. The people would not.

Imagine seeing a homeless person and offering to buy him/her food and they resolutely rejected it. No matter what you said or how you pleaded, they refused and were even offended at the suggestion they needed food. I doubt if you’ve ever run up against that situation and neither have I, but try to imagine what that would be like. You’d be incredulous. You wouldn’t understand why they were responding as they did and all you wanted to do was to help them. This happened with Jesus time and time again yet He pressed on because He could not simply stop trying to help people and open their eyes to the truth.

When Jesus faced this type of rejection, I doubt He was offended. I think He became incredibly saddened because of it and He was saddened because His heart was so filled with unrestrained compassion for them, yet the hearts of the people were completely closed off to Him. In essence, their rejection of Him left Him without an approach to them. They would not allow Him to get close, though He desperately wanted to come alongside them and even carry them if need be. Though fully compelled to want to help them, their refusal left Him terribly grieved for them. He had no outlet where they were concerned, no way to fulfill the desire of His heart for them.

Love, in today’s world, would say to those people, “Hey, you’re all doing great! I hope and pray you’ll gain more understanding about who God is and what He has for you. In the meantime, keep going. I’ll stand here and urge you onward and cheer. Hopefully, you’ll get there one day and in fact, I’ll pray that you do.” This is nothing more than emotional virtue.

Unrestrained compassion would say, “What can I do for you? Please let me help you find the peace you’re searching for but you’re not even aware that you are searching! Let me teach you what you need to know to find favor with God. Come away from the life you are living so that I can give you living waters. How can I help you?”

The compassion that Jesus had and exhibited for the average person was tangible, touchable, real, authentic, deep and compelling. It was automatic, unlike many to most of us. I can imagine that it was very difficult for Him when He experienced rejection, but not for Himself. It was difficult because He knew what the people were rejecting, yet still had the need.

“37 O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling! 38 Look, your house is left to you desolate. 39 For I tell you that you will not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’” (Matthew 23:37-38)

In the above two verses, I used to think Jesus was a bit angry that He was so willingly cast off. Now, I realize that He was filled with sorrow for what the people had rejected. Was there anger? Yes, but not at the people but at what sin had done to them, making them so hard hearted.

Jesus’ heart of unrestrained compassion knew what people needed and in effect, knew what they were seeking even if they did not fully comprehend it themselves. He was angry at what sin had done to their hearts and minds as well as the world in general. He was angry that this world was under the sway of the evil one. Yet, what overwhelmed Him was His deep sense of compassion that literally rose up from His bowels and yet, was met with resistance, complacency and even rebellion leading to outright rejection. He knew they were spiritually blind and He so desperately wanted them to see the truth…but they were unwilling.

The difference between love and unrestrained compassion in today’s world is the difference between how a person reacts when they are rejected. A person who simply loves, may stop up that bottle so that they cease reaching out to that particular person who has rejected them. The person who reaches out to another because of their compassion within that so compels them to do so that when they are rejected, they continue reaching out anyway. Unrestrained compassion doesn’t care about how self is affected. It is consumed with helping that other person open up to them.

But guess what? We cannot create unrestrained compassion within us. That is what God does. Our job? To understand that this is what He wants within us and to seek His face in the creation of it within.

It’s very easy for me to be upset with or even angry with those in power who have forced the mRNA jab and other things onto the populace. However, they still need God, correct? Should I not have unrestrained compassion for them even if they never come to the realization that they need God just as much as I do? God will judge. That’s not my job. My job is to reach out via unrestrained compassion to those who are dying. I can do that in my own strength, which is nothing or I can pray that God will create within me the type of compassion that He wants to see; that glorifies Him.

I’d like to develop this topic more completely and Lord willing, I’ll do that over the next few articles.

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Source: https://studygrowknowblog.com/2025/05/21/unrestrained-compassion/